Assassin's Silver
by YamiHikari2
Summary: sigh another bad summary. brace yourselves: Bedridden by the illness brought about by sprites' attack, Aysel can neither predict nor negate whatever other threats that may strike at the Demon Lord's castle because of it.
1. Prologue

Assassin's Silver  
Prologue  
By YamiHikari  
  
Disclaimer- Don't own Demon Diary, nor its characters, but Aysel is my original character, so there will be hell to pay if you use her without my permission. And that's really all I have to say.  
  
Author's Note- This is the second fic that Divine Guardian has asked me to write, the first being a pairing that was not Orphen and Cleo but Orphen and an original character. Divine Guardian came up with this idea, but couldn't get it off the ground, so she then asked me to write it. Originally, the person was going to be an angel, but as that might have been a little hard to do, I talked it over with her, and it was changed to elf. Alright then, read, review, and hopefully enjoy. I now present to you. Assassin's Silver.  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
"The war with the demons goes badly, my lord," a silky male voice stated from the shadows.  
  
"How many of us have perished?" another demanded, voice even smoother than the one before, like liquid gold and light. "Tell me, Sef."  
  
"Twenty of us already, and it is only a week into the campaign. However, spies report that there is a weak spot that we could strike at, my lord."  
  
"Which?"  
  
A musical female voice interrupted. "Let me explain."  
  
"Ah, Aysel. How goes it on the battlefield."  
  
Aysel stepped out from a doorway and gracefully made her way across the floor to the throne. "Let me explain, Lord Menefer, just to clear you of any false impressions this fool," silver eyes flickered idly over Sef and back, "has presented you with."  
  
Sef bristled, but knew better than to mess with the High Elf's favorite. He kept silent as she continued. "It's been even worse than that. At least fifty of our number have been destroyed. But there is some truth to his report. The newest demon lord Raenef."  
  
The High Elf leaned out, long pale blond hair tumbling down over his shoulders to frame his slender and virtually flawless face. His voice had a faint tinge of annoyance to it. "Well? What about the fifth demon lord Raenef?"  
  
A cold smile stretched the lips of Aysel. "He's but a child who can be easily dispatched, which will cause enough confusion to delay the demons. But, his tutor, Eclipse, will not be so easy."  
  
Lord Menefer chuckled softly. "Eclipse? Serving a mere child?"  
  
"Yes, it would appear so."  
  
"Aysel."  
  
"Yes, lord?"  
  
"Your new mission is to dispose of them both. You will have to find a way to get into their trust, but you may choose any and all weapons that you desire for this mission from the armory."  
  
"And my reward?"  
  
"Rest assured that you will be given an adequate reward for your services. if you succeed."  
  
"Do you have that little faith in me then?"  
  
"Greater elves than you have tried. Eclipse is not a demon to be trifled with. Dismissed."  
  
As Aysel exited the room, she answered, "I am not an assassin to trifled with either. I will see you again, my lord."  
  
When the echoes of the two last sarcastic words had died away, Sef risked asking a question. "Are you sure it is wise to trust her?"  
  
"Wise to trust a woman? Never. But an assassin's promise will be their only goal in life until they complete the task set to them. Either they will finish it. or die trying."  
  
Author's Note- Neh, this is just the intro. Hope no one minds. YAH! (dodges thrown objects; straightens up) Hmm. I really think this will probably turn out better than Follow Your Heart. Well, review people, okie? Ja! 


	2. Assassin's Silver, Chapter 1

Assassin's Silver:  
Chapter One  
By YamiHikari  
  
Disclaimer- Standard disclaimer, don't own Demon Diary, yadda yadda, but Aysel is my original character. And I don't give a hoot about Lord Menefer and Sef. They're not really that important.  
  
Author's Note- PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEEAASE read the ending Author's Note. It has some interesting family history, or at least a legend, and I would love it if you would read it. But you don't have to. Sorry for the long delay, I REALLY wanted to get something out before the end of January, but I hit writer's block while rewriting this chapter, as I did have an idea, but I discarded, as it was... difficult, to say the least, to pull off. I also rewrote the prologue to make things clearer, but it's not up yet, well... it's not up at the very moment I'm typing this, so you know what I mean. ^__^;; So, the moment you've all been waiting for (or not)... I present to you the FIRST CHAPTER THAT TOOK OVER A MONTH TO WRITE! I'm such a procrastinator...  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
Aysel sat on the wall, legs dangling over the edge, outwardly calm, inwardly seething. How dare he?! At least the reward would be doubled, if not more. Good spies were almost as valuable as her. She had gotten into the Demon Lord's castle easily enough. Apparently, the 5th Raenef was in the habit of bringing people home, so it hadn't been particularly difficult. How pathetically easy this was going to be.  
  
Raenef approached her cautiously from behind. She had seemed almost cold when he had first met her, and still hadn't dropped the mask that he felt sure hid her true feelings. After all, no one can be anti-social forever, right? 'Right,' he mentally assured himself.  
  
Hearing the sound of his footsteps, she turned quickly, seemingly more so than humanly possible. The young Demon Lord stopped in mid-step. Her eyes seemed to look right through him rather than at him, and, he wasn't sure if he imagined it or not, but there seemed to be a slight breeze brushing against his face, but then it was gone.  
  
She relaxed. The wariness was replaced by another rather bland mask, which was only different from the usual on that she wore because of the faint question that was portrayed in the slight lift of the eyebrows. "Lord Raenef?"  
  
He made a face. Three days here, and she still called him that. Still, he thought he saw a faint hint of a smile. Maybe she'd stop acting like a servant, always going around silently, never talking to anyone unless they either talked to her or if they were about to talk to her. She had the uncanny knack of knowing if someone was behind her and when he or she was going to speak.  
  
"Nothing. It's just..."  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"You look lonely. Do you want to come outside with me'n Eru[1] and Chris?"  
  
Honest surprise showed on her pale, slender face and silver eyes. "Outside," she mused, expression now thoughtful. "I suppose."  
  
Abruptly, Aysel extended her hand. After staring at it for a couple seconds, he managed a mystified, "Huh?"  
  
"You just visualize the place where you want to go and say 'Go', right? It's more practical if only one person uses their mezraez."  
  
Raenef balked. "I could-"  
  
"And I need to practice," she added. When he still hesitated, the elf sighed impatiently. "Well?"  
  
Stepping forward, he gingerly took her hand. There was a blinding flash of light, then the air rushed in to fill the space that they had previously occupied.  
  
"GET OFF! YOU WEIGH, LIKE, A TON!!"  
  
"My arm is not supposed to BEND THAT WAY!! GERROFFAME!"  
  
"It's not my fault! OW! Stop hitting me!"  
  
A yelling tangle of limbs, heads, and waving fists separated itself into the dusty forms of Raenef, Erutis, and Chris. Aysel kept a straight face and stayed at her vantage point on a branch of a nearby tree. She sketched a rune in the air in front of her and whispered "Hide me."  
  
"Babo[1]! How could you screw up something as simple as picturing the place and saying 'Go'?!"  
  
"I didn't do it this time! Really!" Raenef protested. "Right?" He turned to look for Aysel. "Uh..."  
  
There was no one else on the ground, and when he quickly scanned the trees –just in case- he saw nothing but leaves, branches, and the waving areas of light and shadow made by them, the light, and the wind. Playful zephyrs tugged at their hair and clothes, then sped flippantly past the companions' faces.  
  
The young demon lord absentmindedly brushed pale blond bangs back from vivid green eyes[2]. "It's windy out today," he commented. Then he jerked his mind back to the dilemma that presented itself to him in the form of the two humans.  
  
Fortunately for him, they had been suitably distracted by his idle observation. "It wasn't windy at all until you got here..." Erutis said slowly, a puzzled look on her face.  
  
The elf in the tree winced slightly. So he had noticed... maybe she hadn't given him enough credit in her first assessment, but he still didn't worry her quite as much as his tutor did.  
  
She bit her lip, frowning faintly. How she hated these espionage missions. Nowhere near as intense as the quick and perilous... "elimination" of potential enemies. Spying was just a slow and boring waltz that circled around the top of the hourglass[3], never going anywhere but occasionally the orchestra made a slight alteration in the music, and you had to shift your dance along with it. The hunt's only music was the pounding of your heart in your ears and the rush of blood through your veins, and its only instruments? Whatever you had or needed.  
  
It would have been so easy... so easy to dispose of both the demon residents of the castle. She consoled herself with the thought that if she waited long enough, there would be two less demons in the world. Listening to the bits and snatches of conversation the wind brought her, Aysel heard that their talk had turned to trivial things, unimportant to her mission. She left.  
  
Softly stepping across the sunlight stone tiles, Aysel soaked in mezraez[4] as she walked in the light. She stopped suddenly, tilted her head to one side, and then turned.  
  
"Master Eclipse, to what do I owe this great honor?" she inquired with a tone that might have been considered mocking on a lesser being and a carefully expressionless face.  
  
"Curiosity," he replied shortly, leaning against the marble railing, but in the shadow of a tree. He was placed effectively in the shadow by this movement. "If I may ask some questions?"  
  
"Very well then. One down, four more to go. You get five total."  
  
"What are you?"  
  
"An elf." The unspoken 'duh' was clearly present in her voice.  
  
"You know that's not what I meant.  
  
"Three more, Master Eclipse."  
  
He gazed coldly at her. Unperturbed, she returned it. "I said, three more, Master Eclipse. Lucky three. Make them count."  
  
"Why are you here?"  
  
"Because I was born. Two more strikes, and you're out."  
  
More than a little frustrated, he demanded, "You know what I'm talking about, don't you?"  
  
"Maybe. It's down to one."  
  
After thinking for a few seconds, Eclipse said, very clearly and deliberately, "What is the real reason that you are here at my lord's castle?"  
  
Her silver gaze slid sideways, then down to the floor. Aysel shut her eyes, then opened them and looked back at him. "You don't know if I'm going to tell the truth or not when I answer your question," she stated, not asked.  
  
"Just answer it."  
  
A brief sardonic smile lit her face for an instant. The sun passed behind a cloud, driven by a wayward breeze, throwing them both into shadow. "I'll tell you the truth, even if you don't believe me. I'm here because I. Want. This. War. To. End. Ever since the gods drew up the contract between your kind and the clerics, you've been attacking my people. No, even before then, you were waging war on two different species. Bloodthirsty, you are.  
  
"But for whatever reason, I want it to end. I want it to stop. I want to never again have to see families that I've known cut down mercilessly as they try to run to safety, hear the trees' screams as the blood soaks into their roots, and then more screams as they too are butchered. Crystal water turns dark red and deadly with blood, and your kind doesn't care. Children are scarred, both outwardly and inwardly, and they see what they should not have to, and they suffer what would seem unbearable even to ones far older then they. Some of them become killers, heartless machines with no feelings about what they're doing or what they have done."  
  
One single drop of water ran down her paler than normal face. A minute passed as she regained her composure.  
  
"You wanted to know why I was here," she said quietly, but it still carried as much force as it would have had she been shouting. "Now you know. You have no questions left. If you'll excuse me."  
  
Eclipse watched as she turned her back on him and resumed her walk down the hall. He had known this, all that she had told him. But it had never come like this, as a being his own age that hated what he was and what he represented. At least, that's what he thought she was and thought. His own thoughts eventually led him to the lone tear that had fallen.  
  
'They're emotional, attached to everything around them. Maybe too much so. Demons... we don't cry. Most of us,' he amended as Raenef's face came into his mind. 'But does that make them weaker, or stronger?'  
  
Aysel had told him the truth. She did want to end the war, but she hadn't told him the means she was willing to employ to do so. The only sure way to completely end a war, for once and for all, was to destroy the opposing side so they couldn't rise up again and begin another battle. Completely wipe out, no exceptions.  
  
A slight pang of guilt seared through her mind as she thought of the innocence and generosity of the usually clueless Raenef.  
  
'If and when I have to kill him, I will,' she told herself. 'I will.'  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
[1]- Eru is a nickname that appears in Demon Diary, and I'll use it to cut down on all the "Erutis" this and "Erutis" that. Even if it did only appear once, I'm still using it, so there. Hahaha. o.O;; Don't mind me...  
  
[2]- I had a lot of trouble deciding what Raenef's description would be, since the picture on the front of the original volume one have blue hair and eyes, whereas another picture had green eyes and blond hair. Yet another had RED eyes and blond hair, but I came to the (quite possibly incorrect) conclusion that it was just evil Raenef, so I decided to use the blond hair, green eyes combo.  
  
[3]- I rather like the way this was phrased. The hourglass is a symbol for time, so she is saying that espionage is a time-consuming affair. It's slow, and it's boring. However, there are some shifts that can make it dangerous, and that's the music. The music is like a... metaphor? Analogy? Something or another, for the environment spies must work in. Sometimes it will change, and thus put the lives of the moles in danger. And I think the hunt is easy enough to understand. If you've already figured all this out prior to reading the footnote, I'm sorry, but I wasn't sure if everyone would get this, and I didn't want misunderstandings to interfere with the enjoyment (or not) of reading the fic.  
  
Author's Note- This reminds me of a story my dad used to tell me about one of my ancestors. I'll put a little bit here, but if I told the whole thing, it may give the story away. So as it unfolds, I'll tell the rest of the story.  
  
Supposedly, my ancestor was a famous general in South Korea. His enemies wished to dispose of him, as he probably was a pretty good general, and sent an assassin to kill him. She could do nearly everything; cook, dance, sing, and whatnot. She was accepted into his home as a household servant, but....  
  
And that's all I can write without giving anything away. However, I have no doubts whatsoever that quite a lot of you are clever enough to figure everything out. Still, this fic isn't consciously derived from the story, and there are differences. How many, I'm not saying. Anyyywaaaays, that's it. Ja ne! 


	3. Assassin's Silver, Chapter 2

Assassin's Silver:  
chapter two  
By YamiHikari  
  
Disclaimer- Again, I do not own Demon Diary, nor its characters. That would be people like Cake Publishing, Kara, and the translation junk is Tokyopop's. However (of course there's a catch, this has an original character in it!), Aysel is my original character, so please no stealing.  
  
Authoress' Note- The spellcheck yells at me if I use "authoress's", so I don't think I'll do that... Eheheheh... actually, it yells at me all the time. Let's see, right here there's "Aysel", "spellcheck", "authoress's", and "Tokyopop's". Oh yes, and "eheheheh". Yes, I am well aware of the fact that you can simply add these words into a little dictionary, but I don't want to. ^_^ Stubborn, stubborn me. Oh yes, and an amusing little bit of news. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to the Sorcerous Stabber Orphen OST, but the show itself is also known as "Majutsushi Orphen" or just simply "Orphen". I want to get the game. I saw it for $17. $17!!!!! But I don't have a PS2. I weep.  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
She ran.  
  
As she ran through environments that passed by too quickly for her to see, or perhaps she just did not take heed of them, a song passed through her mind, and she couldn't remember where she had heard it.  
  
"Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go..."  
  
A silver blade was clutched in her pale hands.  
  
'I am going to kill him. I am going to kill him. I. Am. Going. To. Kill. Him. And then the job is over... it'll be over...'  
  
Those fractured thoughts passed through her head even as the childish rhyme did. Branches whipped at her face, but they were brushed aside. A path opened before her, and she leaped over the river, stumbling slightly on her landing, but resumed running.  
  
Lit by the moon, the dark figure in front of her turned slowly, or was it that she was moving so swiftly that it was slow to her? There was no face. Strands of dark-looking hair escaped from beneath the hood and fluttered across what could be seen of the stranger's face in the moonlight.  
  
She buried the knife in his chest, blood spurting out from the mortal wound and spraying her face, soaking her hair. The hood was thrown off their face as their head jerked back in agony. Illuminated by the light of the full moon, she couldn't mistake that face.  
  
"OPPA!![1]"  
  
In the woods, he laughed. Oh Mab[2], how she hated him and his cursed laugh.  
  
She screamed.  
  
~  
  
When Aysel woke up, her throat was clenched from holding that scream in. Drenched in sweat and tangled in the sheets, she tried to relax, and take a deep breath. Maybe several.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
Silver eyes widened with shock, and the elf jerked away from the source of the voice and towards where she thought the wall should be. Instead, she landed with an undignified *thump* on the floor. "Ahhh, Mab, my head..." The voice that she had heard suddenly clicked with a face in her memory bank.  
  
"Lord Raenef, don't ever do that again. Please."  
  
Easing herself up, Aysel was careful to make sure that only her left side was facing him. She had felt the wall a good foot or two away from where it had been last night. How had that happened?  
  
Then she suddenly realized that everything was dark. Experimentally, she held a hand in front of her face.  
  
"Lord? Can I ask you something?"  
  
"Sure." He smiled.  
  
"What time is it?" Her voice was carefully blank.  
  
"Um... sometime in the morning."  
  
"Is it dark in the room?"  
  
What a strange question. "No... why?"  
  
When she did not answer, Raenef asked another question of his own. "Aysel, where'd you get the scars from? Did something happen?"  
  
She heard real concern in his voice. It was just him in the room, so it should be safe.  
  
"No... I just... made a mistake once. That's it. If you'll excu-"  
  
"What did you do?"  
  
Another shock. "What the hell?!"  
  
"No, really, what happened, I want to hear."  
  
At the sound of a third person's voice, namely Erutis's, the cold mask came back on.  
  
Ominously quiet and making each syllable count, Aysel hissed, "Since when did watching a person sleep become a spectator sport."  
  
Without waiting for an answer, since she hadn't meant to there to be one, she disappeared in a faint burst of light.  
  
~  
  
The three unlikely companions stared at the spot where she'd been. 'She's kind of scary...'  
  
"Rae, of all the people you decide to take pity on and bring home, it had to be a bad-tempered elf, didn't it?" Erutis sighed.  
  
"They looked like burns," the cleric commented. After receiving inquiries via the eyes, he clarified. "The scars, I mean. It makes sense though, getting burned on accident."  
  
"Just part of the neck, shoulder, and right above the elbow? Maybe it was deliberate. Besides, they look really... unnatural."  
  
The 5th Demon Lord Raenef had a solution as usual. It might not have been THE solution, but it was definitely A solution.  
  
"Eclipse'll probably know!" he chipped in optimistically.  
  
"Sure... you ask him. He doesn't like clerics."  
  
"But we should ask her to see if we're right."  
  
The other two immediately nominated Raenef for that duty. Erutis was to ask Eclipse on the subject of burns. Hopefully, neither would get suspicious of why and how the other had gotten the information. The two elder humanoids were coldly formal with each other, and if it ever got to downright hostile, the younger ones never knew.  
  
~  
  
"Burns?"  
  
Erutis nodded, fingers crossed for luck behind her back. Hopefully, he wasn't in a foul mood. You never could tell, and it was like navigating a minefield... was she about to be blown into smithereens?  
  
"Would this, perchance, have something to do with one of the... "guests" staying here?"  
  
D'oh. "No... of course not... I was just... curious?" the sword master offered hopefully. She had just trodden on a hidden mine. Would she live to tell the tale?  
  
The demon didn't seem to be buying it. "Really..."  
  
"Well... actually, my old friend has this other friend who's got this really horrible burn, and they wouldn't tell her how they got it, and then my friend was-"  
  
"So you want to see if I would know how your "friend's friend" received their injury."  
  
Mute, Erutis nodded, fingers crossed even tighter.  
  
"Very well then."  
  
She paused a moment, containing a sigh of relief, and tried to remember exactly what she had seen. "Um... they were... curved... curved lines that hooked at the ends, almost like... ...."  
  
"Like..."  
  
"... I guess you could call them... crescents, almost..."  
  
"Eh?!'  
  
The swordswoman stared. It was quite possibly the first unintelligent sound out of the demon, and definitely the first one she had ever heard. He had sounded more like an uneducated country bumpkin than the cold and reserved high-ranking tutor of Rae.  
  
"Um... I should leave now..." she said slowly, edging away cautiously, but still ready to run. "I'll see you around... I think..."  
  
Eru turned.  
  
"Wait."  
  
She froze, then slowly turned to meet her Fate.  
  
"Usually such... odd markings are caused by magic." He had quickly recovered his usual demeanor and it was as if that one startled syllable had never been.  
  
"Ah. Okay. Thanks, I think..."  
  
As quickly as she could without making it seem like an insult, Erutis fled.  
  
~  
  
Ten minutes after the hasty departure of Erutis, Eclipse sat awhile in uffish thought[3]. He was remembering old times, old campaigns, old enemies and comrades and the clashing of ignorant armies by night[4]. He was trying to remember something from about 2000 years back, but the entire thing still eluded him. Pieces of the encounter, he could remember, yes, but not the whole thing. It was the entire thing that Eclipse was seeking, but it would tease him with a small glimpse of a forest, or someone's face, or the sound of a voice, but then it would dance nimbly away, laughing at his efforts.  
  
He finally stood, his decision made. He would go to the source of the problem: Aysel. He wasn't easily fooled, and Erutis wasn't the best liar. The only reason he had agreed to tell the sword master anything was that he knew she couldn't get any information without telling him some. And he had gotten some good information. The only problem: he couldn't remember how that information tied in with anything. He remembered that the elf was always outside. Right before Eclipse said Go and teleported outside, he assumed it was in the forest somewhere. The only problem was where.  
  
~  
  
As she sank under the cool water of the piece of the lake that she had found somewhere on the grounds of the castle, she briefly chastised herself for being in such a panic over midnight fears that should be irrelevant to her by now. She pulled herself forward through the clean water with easy strokes of her arms, and surfaced somewhere in the middle of what she could see of the lakeshore and the unknown distance to the other side. Treading water, she sighed, silver hair sleek and smooth from the water that pulled it down, droplets trailing down her face. Another sigh escaped her lips and returning back under the water, she swam back to the shallows.  
  
~  
  
"He said magic, guys. Magic. It's not a natural burn."  
  
Erutis's eyes flashed in turn to Chris, then to Raenef.  
  
"I was right," she concluded. "I was right. They weren't natural. You can't get burns like that from flames unless you heated something and then burned them with it in that pattern. No way anything like that is natural."  
  
Raenef had propped his chin on top of his linked hands. "So now we're going to ask her how it happened?"  
  
"Ah, no."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"_You're_ going to ask her. Not us. You."  
  
"Oh. Okay." The young Demon Lord pushed out his chair and stood. He began to traipse off on his quest, then suddenly stopped and turned. "Hey, do you know where she is?"  
  
The cleric and Erutis groaned in unison. They'd probably be dragged along on a search too.  
  
Raenef brightened. "Hey, you can come with me to look! It'll be fun. I haven't been in the woods yet."  
  
Oh how they hated it when they were right.  
  
~  
  
Smiling, Aysel listened to the idle chattering of the water spirits. They had crowded around her, lonesome after all those years when no passerby had ventured into the forest and discovered their home therein. Competing to win the elf's attention, they held contests to see who was the best at anything. Amused, she sometimes gave in to their pleas and saw if she could do whatever it was better than the winner.  
  
~  
  
On separate paths, but almost exactly parallel to each other, Eclipse was just slightly ahead of the trio as they went on their separate ways, but yet the same destination. Both parties had employed some form of magic, which was actually rune for both. They moved on towards the lake.  
  
~  
  
The little transparent spirits wailed, and swirled unhappily around Aysel as she persuaded them to let her go. After all, she couldn't just stay in the lake forever; she had to eat sometime. After five minutes, she had talked them into letting her go, but with the promise that she would come back soon. Aysel rose from the water, which was still about waist deep on her, and turned towards the shore.  
  
~  
  
Eclipse had stopped just at the edge of the forest; dirt went on, then merged with the sand, until it became pure sand and went down to the very edge of the water. His rune had vanished after it had fulfilled its purpose. He saw, without meaning to, the scars that Erutis had described, and he saw silver eyes widen in shock and horror, then narrow in what looked like hatred. The demon turned, but too late.  
  
~  
  
Raenef, Erutis, and Chris had stopped when they heard the cries of outrage being voiced by Aysel. Luckily for them, they were still in the cover of the trees. The trio promptly hid behind the handy trees, peering out to see exactly what would be so foolhardy as to incite the wrath of the elf.  
  
"Oh, he's _screwed_..." whispered Chris. The others nodded mute agreement.  
  
The next second they heard her shouting out something. Chris's bright blue eyes were wide. "He is _so_ screwed... even _I_ don't know that one yet..."  
  
"What? Know what?"  
  
"That's Divine magic."  
  
That was all they needed to know. "Oh dear..."  
  
A blast issued through the trees, accompanied by a blindingly bright light. As soon as it had stopped, the cleric frowned slightly. "That wasn't even nearly as strong as it should have been..."  
  
Motioning for the others to follow, he tried to creep closer without being seen. Aysel had summoned her usual garb from the bank, and put it on while still in the water. Flushed with anger, she stalked out of the water, stopped in front of Eclipse, then slapped him.  
  
The sound echoed resoundingly over the empty lake and through the trees as she vanished.  
  
Erutis and Raenef had been just in time to catch the last part of the performance. There were a couple seconds of silence.  
  
Then Chris turned his head to face Eclipse, earrings flashing in the light, and grinned. "So. See anything good?"  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
[1]- "Oppa" is Korean for "big brother", but only girls can say it. Boys have their own special little term for "big brother".  
  
[2]- Mab is used in Finder, by Emma Bull. She/it seems to be an entity that elves (or maybe just female elves) call on. (After all, only Tick-Tick says Mab... hm...) It's a good book, by the way. I highly recommend it.  
  
[3]- From "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carrol. Funny poem, I just felt like inserting that. But the group did go "whiffling" through the "tulgey wood", so maybe it fit.... Maybe... if "whiffling" and "tulgey" mean anything... And notice how the poem only says "jabberwock" not "jabberwocky"... strange...  
  
[4]- Yes, drawn from another poem, but this is from "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold and it's really "... Where ignorant armies clash by night!" Again, I just felt like inserting that. Eheh. I usually don't make a lot of sense to people.  
  
YamiHikari's Note- I want to laugh so hard right now, but I can't, since I'm supposed to be asleep. Oh... oh dear, yes, I really should be asleep... I do so despise getting up early in the morning. No more family history for a while, I should think. Well, at the rate this is going anyway. But seriously, just imagine the last couple of scenes. Ahahaha, fuunnnyyy... to me, anyway. But I'm a strange person, so... -_-;; ... good grief, 8 pages! I think I'll shut up now and go to sleep. Ja! 


	4. Assassin's Silver, chapter 3

Assassin's Silver:  
chapter three  
by YamiHikari  
  
Disclaimer- *sigh* Again, I don't own Demon Diary nor its characters, and if Aysel is stolen and you're the one with sticky fingers, you are in DEEP, DEEP trouble.  
  
YamiHikari's Note- Good grief, I'm listening to the Orphen soundtrack _again_. Well, Last Kiss, to be specific, over and over for no apparent reason. -_-;; Well, I do like the song... Eh, nvm. Anyway, no more family history for a while, or did I say that before? Ah, well...  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
Aysel didn't speak to any of the residents of the castle for at least a week, and completely ignored Eclipse for three. No one mentioned the scars again, and the trio never really found out from the elf whether they had been caused by magic. When she did begin to answer small, unimportant questions, she still stayed rather anti-social, preferring the woods to the rooms. When she was in the castle, usually it was in the library.  
  
This was one of those times. Grimacing slightly at the huge amounts of dust that erupted when the book was laboriously tugged out from its tight-packed fellows, Aysel opened it at the table and idly scanned its pages. Nothing interesting here. Why would this book be of such importance to Menefer? There was nothing in the books, no records, no ideas, no fictional accounts, no eyewitness accounts, no nothing. In fact, it was just a book filled with blank pages.  
  
'Wait.' She glanced at the pages again, then smiled. Dipping the quill pen into the ink, she carefully drew a rune on the first page and waited.  
  
The ink flowed through the pages, and words appeared. She flipped the pages again, and they were filled with information. Useful information. So this was why this demon book was so important to her lord.  
  
"Lighter Copy, diamond 4[1]."  
  
Daylight streamed in through the windows and, within seconds, there was an almost exact replica of the book lying next to the original. The new one, however, was made of the light. Placing one hand on it, she called up an air spirit. After a minute or so, she shrank the copy and handed it to the spirit which fluttered its twirling little way to the window and out.  
  
She walked out of the library after replacing the book in its place on the shelf. A few steps later, she stopped. "If you're quite finished skulking about and pretending to be sneaky, you three can come out and ask your questions face-to-face." Turning to meet the rather shame-faced demon lord and his two human "minions", she raised her eyebrows. "Well?"  
  
Averting their gazes guiltily, they stammered out excuses like "wanting to see if the library was free" or "just walking around" and the like. A half-smile crossed her face as Aysel watched them contradict each other.  
  
When she raised a hand to silence them, they all abruptly shut up and waited anxiously. She was almost sure when this was over, they would run fast and far. "If you're going to tell a lie with two or more people in your group, at least consult each other first and make up _one_ story that's the same, not twenty different excuses."  
  
They still waited, though not as much on edge as they had been. Aysel considered the prospects of this. She was bored, and needed something to occupy her time in-between trying to find information for her lord. Perhaps this would help. She moved past them and stopped at a spot some ten feet away. "You all breathe too loud. I heard you clearly from about here, but perhaps my hearing is better that yours, so that may account for it. Also..."  
  
The rest of the day, it was like a game. They all tried to see how close they could get to one person without them noticing, or if they could possibly startle their target by sneaking up on them all the way.  
  
~  
  
"AAGGH!!"  
  
"Gotcha." The redheaded swordswoman grinned triumphantly. Then it was her turn to yelp as the pale hand of Aysel descended upon her shoulder.  
  
"I told you, keep an eye out behind you. Cleric, get out of those bushes."  
  
Chris grumbled as he emerged from the shrubbery behind her, brushing stray leaves off his tunic and out of his black hair. "You're too good at this..."  
  
Raenef, who had been Erutis's target, suddenly asked, "Where'd you learn this?"  
  
Looking distant, the elf replied, "It was a game I used to play with my brother."  
  
"Oh. Your family must miss you, now that you're gone."  
  
She seemed vaguely pained. "It's the other way around..." The tone implied end of subject.  
  
Still, Raenef persisted. "Moh-ya[2]? What you mean by that?"  
  
"I mean exactly what I say."  
  
"Ow." Erutis had kicked him. He reached down to rub at the spot on his shin. "I see."  
  
She didn't think about it. She didn't think about supple bows of wood and waxed strings and shafts of arrows and their stone or metal heads. Archery was one thing that she had never taken up, and she had her reasons.  
  
Then she stopped trying not to think about it and asked, almost cheerfully, "Does anyone know what's for dinner?"  
  
"No clue. Who does the cooking around here anyway[3]?"  
  
"You don't know who does the cooking at your own castle..."  
  
"Nope." Happy smile.  
  
"Oh Mab..."  
  
~  
  
Ten minutes later, the gang had been persuaded to assist in a project of the elf's, and were making... an atrocious mess in the kitchen.  
  
"No, I don't think that a battle-axe will be necessary for cutting the vegetables. Where'd you get that thing anyway?!"  
  
Chris shrugged, and attempted to heft the insanely large weapon for another whack at the vegetables –which were pulverized by now; you can only do so much with a big, dull blade that hasn't been sharpened in ages-, narrowly missing slicing off Raenef's nose by half an inch from sheer weight and momentum. The demon lord was white from head to toe, but still normal colored on the back, with a rather sticky mixture of water, flour, and sugar. He was having some difficulties moving, as the concoction was stiffening.  
  
"'elp. So'one, peas 'elp..."  
  
"What? Speak up, I can't hear you."  
  
"He said 'Help. Someone, please help', which I'm assuming means 'Someone please help me get away from this madman before he lops off my head with that thing'," translated Aysel as she dragged Rae out of harm's way.  
  
"'ank 'oo."  
  
She stopped dead when she saw Erutis's creation. The sword master chipped away a rough spot, then stood back and surveyed it proudly. "Well? It's good, isn't it?"  
  
"Nice. You'll have to teach me sometime, but... we don't need an ice sculpture for soup; bisque, chowder, bouillabaisse, consommé, or otherwise."  
  
Raenef had managed to wash his face and hands free. "Those words... they all just mean 'soup', right?"  
  
"Different kinds, yes. You don't need to know the differences," the silver-haired elf added hastily as Raenef opened his mouth for another query.  
  
"Oh." He shut it. Then he sniffed the air. "Is it just me, or does it smell like a steakhouse in here?"  
  
"It doesn't-"Erutis paused as Raenef wandered by, in search of the source of the elusive scent. "Actually, I think it's you."  
  
He looked baffled. "I haven't been _near_ any meat," he protested.  
  
"Wait... what did you wash yourself off with?"  
  
"It kinda _looked_ like water, but I couldn't really see, so I just used it anyway. It's in that pot over there." He pointed as best he could with a shirtsleeve still solidifying.  
  
Aysel sighed. "That... was the soup stock. You just washed yourself off with beef broth... ... you should go wash off, otherwise it'll _really_ smell..."  
  
After he had disappeared, presumably to the lake she had found before, as there hadn't been any other visible water sources, the elf asked the two humans, "Is he always like this?"  
  
"Pretty much, but not _as_ bad. But maybe it's just 'cause he's in the kitchen. I mean, all sorts of bad stuff happens in the kitchen."  
  
Thunk! Another carrot had met its death at the hands of the next High Cleric of the temple of Rased. Tugging it free, he added, "I've heard a couple stories about some people who got killed in their kitchens, and their ghosts haunted the place forevermore."  
  
"Wow, four syllables. You sure that didn't fry the few brain cells you have left?"  
  
He scowled at the redhead, who was in an uncooperative mood after having to take apart her hard work. "Shut up. It's not my fault you were stupid and thought we need a... a statue of a _dragon_ made out of ice. You're just jealous because _I'm_ doing it right, genius that I am, and _you're_ not."  
  
Erutis threw a piece of ice at him. Halfway across, it froze in midair, the crystalline shape reflecting bits of light and dripping little droplets of water, then dropped as the two gaped.  
  
"Now now. If we work hard, we can finish this in five minutes, and it'll be ready in half an hour. Can you two handle being at least civil to each other for that long?"  
  
Ah. It was her doing.  
  
"Fine." They glared daggers at each other after saying the exact same word in unison.  
  
"Good." The faint glint in the elf's eyes was ever so slightly unnerving, and they unconsciously backed up a step or two, then abruptly began to at least look busy. "Because I might have had you suspend the both of you by your ears from a handy tree-branch until you _did_ learn. And we have quite enough mashed carrot, Chris," she informed him, just a wee bit too late, with a faint quaver in her normally smooth voice.  
  
Unable to stop in mid-swing, the last victim died after the war had been declared over. It was a rather messy death as well; carrot juice splashed all over in a half-foot radius.  
  
Silence.  
  
Silence.  
  
Silence.  
  
Sile-  
  
"You... are _DEAD_!" Erutis suddenly shouted, after the shock of being covered in carrot blood finally wore off. She lunged the short 6 inches to Chris, intent on at least _trying_ to throttle him. Unfortunately for her plans of destruction and quite possibly murder, he had seen the danger coming, and, with reflexes sharpened after a couple months spent with sudden mood changes and violence, had grabbed a ladle and was attempting to fend her off with it.  
  
The ladle that had formerly been hanging off a cabinet knob pulled the cabinet door outwards, and as cabinet doors were usually shut for a reason, the reason why this one had been shut was all too clear.  
  
Pots, pans, and dishes that had been thrown into the wooden cupboard willy-nilly came crashing down on both their heads. Did this stop the two combatants? No, it didn't. The utensils were simply used as more weapons, some of them projectile. Thank Mab that the Frying Pan of Doom[4] wasn't among them.  
  
The laughter that Aysel had been suppressing the entire time that they had been in the kitchen escaped, although it was unheard by the opponent. After she had regained control of herself, she narrowly avoided getting hit on the head with something that turned a chair into a poached egg on contact[5]. That was when she decided to do something about the two, who were both yelling insults so loudly at each other that you could barely make out what the other was saying.  
  
Idly calling a rope of wind from the air, she shoved her way in between them, lowered the rope about one, then the other, and tied them both into chairs. Without waiting for a spoken command, the rope holding them down joined together and pulled the two chairs back to back and connected quickly enough that black and red hair bashed into each other and their owners were temporarily dazed. She gazed down at them impassively.  
  
Then she lowered her face down to their level, and said, "You two are going to stay there until you've learned to be patient with each other and like it. Or else."  
  
"No one's ever finished that threat. Or else what?"  
  
Standing back up again, she shrugged. "Who knows? 'All sorts of bad stuff happens in the kitchen'."  
  
The very blandness of the words was what really got to them, and they both shut up and tried very hard to stay quiet and not think about all those lovely gadgets and doodads in the kitchen, like those knives, and that strange little twisted metal that was all pointy and looked like it would be more at home in a torture chamber than in a kitchen, and the can opener, a.k.a. a big pointy metal thingie that you used to bash open the tops of what cans you had with.  
  
"This 'project' of yours was simply to get those two to behave? I feel I should inform you that it's a lost cause."  
  
She whirled around. That blasted demon was idly standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Abruptly, the half-smile that still remained on her face disappeared switched to a glare about as cold as the piece of ice that remained on the floor from when Erutis threw it, but it was slowly melting in the light of the sun.  
  
"Shut up."  
  
With those two enormously original, well-thought out parting words, she disappeared[6].  
  
"Hey."  
  
Eclipse turned, partway between walking away. Chris tried to tug at the invisible bonds that kept him in the chair. "Would you get these off? It's cutting off the blood supply to my hands."  
  
He turned again. "Find your own way out," was the cleric's only reply as the demon walked away.  
  
Chris swore.  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
[1]- having no spells other than "Dark Arrow", "Magic Shield, circle nine" and "Ice Blade", I was forced to do LOTSA research and stayed up very late figuring out all that I could about the magic system of Demon Diary, and had to make up some stuff. Attack for elementals is "crescent" followed by the level number, defense is "circle" and other stuff, like making a weapon or copy or something else, is "diamond". It was a really sad first attempt at making a spell, but still... as Raenef commented, "Dark Arrow" is corny too. (AAAH! Don't hurt me, Eclipse or Eclipse fans! I love him too!) The reason I didn't use a spell for the air ropes is that it just seems too simple to be worthy of an incantation.  
  
[2]- "moh-ya" basically means "Huh? What? Wha? Eh?" in Korean.  
  
[3]- Since the little parody in book 3 seems to be just that, a parody, Eclipse is not the known cook in the castle. But still, who DOES do the cooking ANYWAY!?  
  
]4]- The Frying Pan of Doom is NOT my idea. It is Patricia C. Wrede's, and it's basically an enchanted frying pan (it's a weapon) that turns people (or things) into poached eggs. It's the last story in Book of Enchantments.  
  
[5]- ehehe, look at [4]. ^.^ odd place for such a devastating weapon to turn up. (OMG, everyone RUN! It's a FRYING PAN!)  
  
[6]- I seem to be poking fun at my original character, and I think I am. This always happens when I read too many Terry Pratchett books...  
  
YamiHikari's Note- anyone who reviews, I LOVE YOU! Well, as in ai, not koi, like ai= friendship. Yah. I'm probably confusing people. Or not, I can't read people's minds. Does anyone notice that this is the second chapter in a ROW that I've ended with Chris? And Eclipse made me think Orphen on... one of the chapters on the second DVD, can't remember which at the moment, and I can't check, as I've decided to give up watching anime for Lent. This, however, does not mean that I can't read manga, but I need money to buy more, since the library doesn't have all that I wanna read... *crycry* anyway, ja! 


	5. Assassin's Silver, chapter 4

Assassin's Silver:  
chapter four  
by YamiHikari  
  
Disclaimer- Is it just me, or do these things bother everyone else? Anyway, I don't own Demon Diary or its characters, so leave me alone. Or I'll scream.  
  
YamiHikari's Note- Daaang, I think I'm coming down with a cold. Was sneezing and hacking my lungs out all day, not to mention the delirium when I was writing a paper. @_@ poor 'lil me... aiiiee, sadistic teachers! Too many big projects! No! No more! It's too much! *wails* Anyway, I love reviews! -_-;; that was random... I shall just shut up now... yah...  
  
- - - - - - - - - - -  
  
Aysel gazed out from her seat on a broad marble windowsill at the changing leaves on the trees. The days were growing shorter and colder. Eventually, soft, cold flakes of snow would fall from the sky, and coat the ground in their beauty. She drew her knees up and circled her arms around them. How long had she been there?  
  
"I want to go back."  
  
The quiet, just under a whisper, phrase startled her. She didn't recognize her voice until a couple seconds later, and then she was struck by the truth of the statement, and the lie in it. This demon castle had life, bright, vibrant life that was in no small part due to the charismatic demon lord and his naïveté. You couldn't help but like the kid.  
  
It made her miss Haeon[1] even more. That was one of the main reasons, if not the only, that she wanted to go back. She had told him she'd come back, promised. Her despondent expression was abruptly replaced with a slightly thoughtful one, then almost a countdown. When she reached zero and turned, Erutis was whispering fiercely to Chris.  
  
"Can't you move more quietly, babo!? She'll hear us!"  
  
"If I'm supposed to move quieter, then you should shut your big mouth so that she won't hear you nattering on!"  
  
A heaved sigh made them both look up with identical expressions of 'Oh crap'.  
  
"It wasn't that bad this time; I only heard you at the door. If you had both kept quiet, I might not have heard you until you got a couple steps into the room. For next time, just don't talk at a-"  
  
A poke in the back made Aysel yelp, then duck and come up with a spell half-cast in one hand. Raenef waved happily from his upside-down position hanging from the roof. He smiled.  
  
"I did it right, right? You didn't hear me because of Chris and Eru?"  
  
Exasperated, though she had to admit some of it was that he was right; she hadn't heard him, she nearly doused the spell, then thought better of it and held it up to his face.  
  
"Do you know what this is?" she demanded.  
  
His brow wrinkled as he squinted at the light in her hand. "Um... really, really bright?" he offered.  
  
"No."  
  
"What?!"  
  
"It is bright, you gotta give him that," commented Erutis as she dusted off her knees.  
  
"All right, it's bright. I will give him that. However, it's also a Class One weapon." At their questioning looks, she sighed, and explained. "It's designed to at least harm people when they come in contact with it, if not kill. Look.  
  
"Tyrfli'ng[2], diamond 9."  
  
One pale hand clenched around the light, which was suddenly a handle, then pulled it out and down to her side as if drawing a sword from thing air, which is pretty much exactly what happened. A large, blockish blade was formed from more of the 'really, really bright' stuff, and Aysel wielded it in one hand. It abruptly angled up at the tip, a sinister tooth to hook and tear.  
  
As they gaped, she extinguished it. "And you don't want to know what it does when it comes into contact with something solid," she added.  
  
She was right. They didn't. Not after the kitchen incident, which had mysteriously cleaned itself up overnight, although their breakfast had seemed to stare up at them the morning after. Well, it was a Demon Lord's castle after all, and these things probably just happened. Right? Right. At least, that's what they hoped whenever they saw vases move for no apparent reason and the statues in the halls differed from week to week.  
  
The sky, already dark with clouds, dimmed further. The predicted snow seemed it would come earlier than thought. 'In fact, a LOT earlier than predicted,' Aysel thought to herself as she moved away from the window as cold flakes blew down and settled in the room.  
  
"Snow!"  
  
"What, we get snow here too?!"  
  
"Yes! I love snow!"  
  
The other three had rushed to the window and were leaning out with little to no thought of their own safety. Raenef had his mouth wide open to try and catch a taste of the sky in the falling snow. The elf smiled slightly. It was his innocence and complete trust in those around him that so reminded her of Haeon. Watching the snow with them, but at a distance, she made a note to herself to send him a message as soon as she had the time.  
  
~  
  
The electrum-eyed elven child ever-present in Aysel's mind also watched the snowfall, but from the entirely too formal and cold polished halls of the domain of the lord. However, in this realm of light, it was opposite the dark realms and was night, and not day.  
  
"Haeon."  
  
The quiet voice behind him made the boy turn. Sef was standing easily behind him, topaz eyes darkened and inscrutable.  
  
"You should be sleeping."  
  
Haeon turned back to watch the snow. "Noona's [3] not. And I just got up a couple of hours ago." His fair locks framed his pale, stubborn countenance, gold-silver eyes watching the dancing flakes.  
  
The darker-colored spymaster sighed and ran a lightly tanned hand through his short hair. "She's not really your sister, you know."  
  
"It don't matter. That's what she said. It don't matter, 'cause if that's what you think it is, then that's what it is."  
  
Sef looked away down the hall, hands in his pockets. He remembered those words and the time Aysel had said them to him. That was before they had gone their separate ways and grown apart. His fingers stroked the cold edge of a small medallion.  
  
"All right then. Stay up if you want. Later."  
  
The elder strode off down the hall, noiseless bare feet immune to the chill of the stone and metal. He also would receive something from the assassin, but it would merely be a report of what information was gathered. There hadn't been much useful news lately, and he suspected that their lord would eventually order to complete the mission and return to the Fair Lands.  
  
~  
  
Absent-mindedly kicking a vase back to its former position as it attempted to shift to the other side of the hall, Aysel wandered the halls. The vase whimpered, and attempted to scuttle behind a desk to nurse its wounds, It got stuck halfway there, and whimpered again. This was just NOT its day.  
  
The three behind her stared at the bizarre sight. "Is that supposed to do that?" Erutis whispered to Raenef.  
  
"No clue."  
  
"It's YOUR castle, isn't it?"  
  
"Hey, I don't know how EVERYthing works around here..."  
  
Chris craned his neck around to continue watching the futile struggles of the glazed piece of pottery. "... Wasn't that the one that tried to chew on your foot about two weeks ago?"  
  
Green eyes became thoughtful. "Umm... no, I think it was that OTHER one... the one with the knot design or something..."  
  
Any further conversation on what vase had decided that its master's foot was a chew toy was brought to a screeching halt. The halt's screech was then drowned out by the sound of heavy feet drumming a regular 'one- two, one-two' down the halls. And the sound was getting closer.  
  
"I'm late! I'm late! I'm... SO DEAD!" A large marble rabbit with a pocket-watch came racing around the corner and zoomed past the gaping crew, attempting to keep ridiculously small spectacles perched upon a nose that was NOT built to hold any kind of vision aid upon it for any amount of time that was longer than .05 seconds.  
  
They turned and stared as it disappeared around the corner. Not knowing what they were expecting, all four waited.  
  
Five minutes later, they were not disappointed. A shriek reverberated down the hall.  
  
"You were precisely ten minutes and fifty seconds late to your post! Off with your head! Off, I say! OFF!!"  
  
A wail, presumably that of the rabbit's, then more thumps. Abandoning their former diversion and racing around the same corner that the rabbit had disappeared around earlier, the gang was just able to spot a fleeting glimpse of a quickly moving bobtail and the unmoving skirts of a rather large woman turning another corner. [4]  
  
"... do you think that the statues do the cooking?"  
  
"It'd explain why there's never anything really COOKED when we eat[5]..."  
  
"True, true. I mean, imagine one of those things trying to handle something like glassware..."  
  
Chris snickered. "Oh man... complete and total chaos..."  
  
"You mean worse than that time that you were pureeing carrots and Rae got petrified, and there was poached egg all over the place?"  
  
"Yes. ... well... maybe."  
  
"The answer there is 'No', because of all the things that could happen, you found one of the most LETHAL weapons in the world in that kitchen, and a statue wouldn't," Aysel called as she meandered off to complete her interrupted search. "The worst that could really happen with statues is they drop shards of glass all over the place. However, with that frying pan, you could ALL wake up in the morning and be a couple of poached eggs which will slowly rot over time."  
  
"Now THAT'S a grim thought... imagine, one with such a genius as mine becoming something that came from a chicken..."  
  
"Oh, drop it, you egomaniac."  
  
"Mab, do you lot want to go outside or what?"  
  
"YES!"  
  
"Then hurry up and help me look for winter stuff. Or are you just going to go out and freeze to death?"  
  
The three still standing at the spot where the rabbit had nearly lost its empty head raced towards the sound of the elf's voice.  
  
"Hey, no fair, you're pushing!" Raenef protested as he jarred the table where the vase was still stuck, freeing it for the moment.  
  
"All's fair in war!" shouted Chris as he edged in on Erutis, currently in the lead.  
  
"Fair THIS, smart guy." The sword master loosened her cape while continuing to run and it fluttered off into Chris' face.  
  
"AAAGHHH!! IT'S THE ATTACK OF THE RADIOACTIVE BRAIN-SUCKING HAMSTERS FROM SOMEWHERE NEAR MARS[6]!!! GET IT AWAY!! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!!"  
  
"And I declare myself the winner! Now gimme that back." Erutis trotted back to the thrashing cleric and yanked her cloak off of him. Reattaching it, she found that their assumed finish line, Aysel, had disappeared.  
  
"Hey, what the heck? She was just here..."  
  
"HA! You didn't win YET! Victory will be mine, as the divine Rased is on MY side!" Chris pushed himself back up and took off.  
  
"YOU LITTLE-"  
  
"Seeya, Eru!" Raenef was hot on his heels.  
  
"Ergh... OW!" Erutis leaned one shoulder against the wall while she tried to massage a cramp out of her leg. "Wait up!"  
  
There was silence. She fumed slightly, then stretched the sore leg slightly. A white-hot lance of pain seared up it. "_OOWWW_!! Stupid (mumble mumble mumble)..."  
  
A couple minutes later, she decided to just screw the pain and follow. The redhead set off, limping slightly. As soon as she had managed to turn the bend, she immediately saw the backs of the two boys.  
  
"You DID decide... to... wait..." She trailed off when Chris motioned furiously with one hand behind his back for her to shut up. Looking up, Erutis saw the reason.  
  
"... such a thick-headed twit. What, do you want me to let him keep running to you for every little problem that comes up?!" Aysel's fingers curled and uncurled slightly and one hand rose and began jabbing an accusing finger at Eclipse for emphasis.  
  
"I don't need your help, I didn't ASK for it, and all YOU'RE doing is making him dependent on other people and WEAKER than what he'd be if he found his OWN path in life, you arrogant, sneaking..."  
  
Her head tilted slightly to the left as she continued her tirade, momentarily exposing again the peculiar scars on the right side of her neck. Silver eyes flashed angrily, and Eclipse stopped listening to her words and stopped paying attention to the present.  
  
How long ago was it? About 1000 years... or more, but possibly around there.  
  
-- Begin Flashback --  
  
One black-gloved hand reached out and jerked the unseeing, pallid face upwards. The girl's face contorted with hatred and disgust.  
  
"Get your hand off of me," she hissed, blind eyes glaring.  
  
The dark cloth that served as a mask twisted slightly as the raven-haired man smiled slightly. "How much do you hate me?"  
  
The glare intensified. "Words fail me." Then her head jerked out of his grasp and she snapped at his hand. It was already drawn back, then came back around in a backhand that threw her into the mud, the mud of dirt and blood.  
  
She tried to rise, but was booted back down by the young man in black. With her hands behind her back, she couldn't do anything to protect herself but curl up and wait.  
  
Finally, as she was driven back against the fresh stump of a tree, he stopped. After the sounds of his footsteps in the mud faded, she heard, "Bring her to the archery court that they all love so much. And you know what to do with the other."  
  
-- End Flashback --  
  
"Now if you'll excuse me," Aysel said coldly, the words so formal as to be insulting. She slid past him, not even brushing one sleeve of his outfit as she did so. A chill wind swept through the hall, making everyone but Eclipse shiver. The demon had turned slightly to gaze after the retreating figure, shadowy eyes lost in thought, dark bangs wafting gently in the breeze.  
  
"Eh, following isn't an option now, I take it," Chris commented, staring in the same direction as Eclipse.  
  
"No. Definitely not." Erutis slide down and finally eradicated that blasted cramp. "How did this happy little occasion come about anyway?"  
  
"... let's just say she's a bit touchy about help, no questions asked, 'kay? 'Kay. Good. Now I'm staying here for the next five minutes at _least_." The cleric joined Erutis on the floor.  
  
"Rae?"  
  
There was an audible thump as the demon lord made his decision, and given the choices – going after a ticked off magic-wielding elf and possibly annoying her more or staying in the hall and maybe getting trampled by a statue – it wasn't too hard to make.  
  
"..."  
  
"What now?"  
  
"We wait. Duh."  
  
More silence in which little dots fill speech bubbles.  
  
"Hey, can we play 'I Spy'?"  
  
Some more awkward little dots. Then,  
  
"Heck with it. Sure."  
  
"Me first," Raenef insisted. "I spy with my little eye..."  
  
"What are you talking about, that thing's huge! Look at yourself in the mirror!"  
  
"Shut up! It's not my fault! And that's just the way the game goes!"  
  
"Chris, don't be mean."  
  
"I'm just saying, LOOK! IT IS! SEE!?" The brunette illustrated his point by holding up his circled thumb and forefinger to one of Raenef's much-debated green eyes. "HUGE!"  
  
"Is not!"  
  
"Is so!"  
  
"Is NOT! What about you?!"  
  
"LOOK! LOOK! NOT EVEN CLOSE!!"  
  
The argument went on.  
  
"Hey guys, Eclipse is gone."  
  
"What? Was he playing? ... ARE NOT!"  
  
"Are so!"  
  
"... Y'know, if someone just came walking past whistling with a bloodstained shovel over their shoulder, you wouldn't even look up, now would you?"  
  
"Are- ... AAAAHHHH! AXE-MURDERER!!"  
  
"Shovel. Are so."  
  
"Are not!"  
  
"... I give up."  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
[1]- Haeon is, as you can see, another original character. Yes, and no stealing extends to him as well. If you're REALLY interested, then go look on fictionpress.net for his story, also by me. Although you'll need to look for the title Haeon or the penname GinSaku. ^_^ I'd love it if you would *winkwink nudgenudge*... ehehehe...  
  
[2]- I think I got this from Ragnarok by Myung-Jin Lee, another manwha artist. AAGGH! I LOVE THAT SERIES SOOO MUCH!! Anyway, the sword was something like tyrfing, the sword of sorcery, and I just kinda twisted the name a little, that's it. Hey, check out Ragnarok if you got the time, it is SOO GOOD! Well, I think it is, but that's me, so... if you're interested, DO IT! DO IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! And the first volume isn't that great compared to the others, and isn't Loki sooo BISH!?!?! ... I am SO off topic... moving on...  
  
[3]- "Noona" is Korean for "big sister" from a younger male. Yeah. Nuff said.  
  
[4]- Ahahah, a little bit of Alice in Wonderland. ^_^ I don't own that. Okay? Okay. Good.  
  
[5]- I've never really seen ANYTHING that is still warm being served in the manwha – not that you really SEE food in the manwha... - soo... I'm assuming there's not many hot lunches there... just like my cafeteria! ^_^;; but even THEY have pizza once a week, and that could be classified as warm, soo... ...o.O;; you work it out.  
  
[6]- I believe the original song title by Weird Al Yankovic is "Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters from a Planet Somewhere Near Mars" and that was just the first thing that popped into my head when I was trying to get what Chris would yell. 'Course, it's a little twisted, but HEY! 's all good! ^_^Again, I don't own that. Weird Al, if by some random chance you read this, I beg of you... DON'T SUE!! T.T  
  
YamiHikari's Note- Aaaahh... I had FUN writing this, in case you couldn't tell. ^_^ ... I want another cookie. Now I will abandon- I mean desert- I mean... take my leave of all my faithful readers (all TWO of you... but THANK YOU! I'D GIVE YOU BOTH A COOKIE IF I COULD! And Suzu-chan, DON'T suggest mailing it...) for food. Yes. Food. Ja! *runs off* 


	6. Assassin's Silver, chapter 5

Assassin's Silver:  
chapter 5  
by YamiHikari  
  
Disclaimer- A) I don't own Demon Diary or its characters and B) if you steal any original characters, there WILL be HELL to pay. Trust me, there will.  
  
YamiHikari's Note- I was listening to that new song out by... um... Seether? Anyway, it had Amy Lee in it, and the title's "Broken", but I LOVE IT! I want The Punisher soundtrack now, cause I think it's on there. But anyway, um... what the heck was I gonna say!?!? Ah well. Oh yes, on a note of randomness: Suggestions are welcomed in with open arms. Whether they will be used is unknown, but they will be appreciated. It means you're taking SOME sort of interest in my writing! Eheh... ;;  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
"Couldn't we just use magic or something? I mean, are the coats'n stuff REALLY necessary?" Chris asked the umpteenth time that they encountered the stuck vase while navigating the hallways.  
  
There was an accusatory pause, in which the three trailing behind the elf stopped dead as she did. Then,  
  
"Mab, no. At least half the fun is getting bogged down by your ridiculously bulky clothes and stumbling around in circles when one of your either too large or too small boots comes off and you have to go get it without getting frostbite," was his dry reply from Aysel as she turned. "Now why didn't I think of that? Don't answer."  
  
The cleric's mouth snapped shut. Some things were better left unsaid, in certain times more than others.  
  
"If you get to the garden, I'll meet you there. If not... I suppose I'll have to assume that there's a killer Ming out on the loose."  
  
"Someone named Ming? A friend of yours?" Raenef was clearly confused.  
  
"No. It's a type of vase."  
  
"Chris, you knew that?"  
  
"Shut up, it's not like I'm stupid."  
  
"Or so he says," quipped Erutis.  
  
"Shut up!"  
  
"Good Mab, you lot..."  
  
"When we get outside, can we go to the pond?"  
  
"That THING out in the woods is not a flimsy little pond, Rae. Rather, it's a gargantuan puddle known as a LAKE. A LAKE. Ponds are teeny."  
  
"Tiny."  
  
"I said 'shut up'!"  
  
"You probably say 'potahto' too."  
  
"No, I say 'potato' like a normal person, whereas YOU probably say something STUPID like 'tomahto'."  
  
"NOOO!! MR.TOMATO!!" Raenef burst into tears. The nightmare still preyed upon his mind.  
  
"Now look at what you did, you made him cry. Good going, Chris." Erutis pulled the wailing demon lord into a hug. "There there. The tomahto's gonna be all right."  
  
"HA! I was RIGHT! You DO say 'tomahto'!"  
  
"I meant 'tomato'!"  
  
Aysel was calmly prying out the still struggling vase. It was rather unhappy after having been stuck there for nearly two days. A couple statues had made fun of it, and its feelings were rather hurt, not to mention its sides. Carrying over to the still arguing group, she stuck it on Chris's head.  
  
"And I hope it eats you, because that'll give us all some peace for once."  
  
His yells were muffled and the vase was bewildered. NOW what the heck had happened to it?! This was just NOT its day... AGAIN!  
  
Raenef looked rather concerned, tears dried. "Will it really eat him? ...And, Eru?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Can you let go of me? Please?  
  
"Oh, oops." The sword master released him.  
  
Aysel shook her head. "But don't tell him that."  
  
"WHAT?! WHAT?!? TELL ME WHAT!?! ... THIS THING'S GOT RABIES, DOESN'T IT!?! WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME!?!? WHY!?!? OWW!!"  
  
The vase now had a splitting... vaseache, having no head in which it could contract a headache. It needed some aspirin badly. In a frenzied attempt to dislodge the pottery from his head, Chris had tripped over his own feet and would have cracked said head on the floor if not for the protective layer of fired clay. It would have been true to say that it had hurt the vase more than it had hurt the cleric.  
  
"Aww... my head..."  
  
By some strange law not known to any scientist in the world, the vase had somehow managed to entirely disappear from his aching head and reappear on the floor a couple inches away from his unruly black hair. The only explanation that can be given at this time is found below[1].  
  
"I must say that I'm honestly surprised that the castle hasn't been blown up or had some other fate similar to that befall it with you all around." The elven member of their party ran a hand through her long silver hair. "Listen, I'll just meet you in the garden, like I said beforehand, and then we can go out. Oh, and watch out for that "Queen of Hearts" or some other such nonsense in the halls. She's starting to get vicious."  
  
With that last bit of optimistic advice, Aysel simply spoke the word "go" and flickered out.  
  
Raenef bent down and poked the dazed cleric in the head. "Neh, Chris? Are you okay? Because we're leaving soon, and then you might get your head chopped off when we're gone since no one'll be here to save you from the queen person."  
  
The demon lord had to pull his own back quickly in order to save it from a collision as Chris abruptly sat up and began dusting himself off. He finished quickly, as the marble floor was relatively clean, and sprang to his feet. As soon as the boots had made contact with the floor, he raced off.  
  
"BETCHA I CAN GET THERE FIRST!"  
  
"But I can just-"  
  
"YEAH RIGHT, MORON!" Erutis sped past Raenef before the blond could finish his sentence. "EAT MY DUST!"  
  
Green eyes blinked, and then Raenef shrugged. "Go."  
  
He teleported.  
  
-----  
  
As the two humans arrived in the garden, gasping, Aysel turned to face them. "Took you long enough."  
  
Raenef waved, then yanked his hand back to his side as what looked to be a minute spark drifted past him. They stared, dumbfounded. Chris's blue gaze settled on a rune drawn in the dirt and he finally regained his breath.  
  
"What the?"  
  
"Summoning rune for sprites. The contract is paid in blood." One slender hand was lifted and a drop of the red liquid ran down her finger and slowed as it navigated her palm. The elf brought the hand to her mouth and licked it off.  
  
"It's never a large amount though," she added.  
  
"I summoned that one," Raenef said smugly and pointed. Then he yelped as his finger was scorched.  
  
"Oh, that was smart," Chris commented scornfully.  
  
"... shut up."  
  
"Catch." Aysel made the motion of throwing one of the miniscule sprites at him. A breeze made the fiery being flare up and grow brighter.  
  
The cleric threw himself flat on the floor as the light passed over his head. It flowed to a halt, then bobbed around his head, shrinking as the breeze faded. Silvery eyes rolled as Chris cautiously got to his feet and tried to avoid the petite reddish glow now hovering about his oh-so- important person.  
  
"It's yours, unless you want to actually go back in and look for those coats so we can laugh at you trudging through the snow and looking like a yeti. It shouldn't hurt you unless, as Raenef has so kindly demonstrated, poke them or come into contact with them, either deliberately or accidentally. But if they do such a thing of their own free will for no good reason, tell me and I'll know why." The last words were directed at the other three, and they suddenly felt a certain amount of pity for the sprite that would be careless enough to do such a thing.  
  
Apparently the fire spirits felt it too, as they kept just the right amount of distance between their wards and themselves as the group began the trek through the forest.  
  
------  
  
Though he watched them go, Eclipse didn't really see the four figures as they trudged off into the trees and disappeared from view. Turning his gaze back to the papers in front of him, the demon soon found his thoughts wandering again.  
  
He couldn't quite dredge up the right memory from the past years of his long - by mortal's standards - life, and it irritated him. Even that one brief vision just a couple days past had gaps in it: the girl's features, the name of the other whom he had commanded, and what he himself had looked like at that time.  
  
These somehow shifted into entirely too human thoughts, and he wrenched his mind away from recollection and back to the task in front of him. Finally realizing what he had seen before his mind had drifted to other topics, he sent a sprite of his own chasing after the group.  
  
Not that there was any real danger. After all, the elven woman had been proven to be a high-level spell caster. The all-too-human thoughts returned after that, and Eclipse did his best to cast them aside and return to his work.  
  
He failed miserably.  
  
-----  
  
"You're sure this is safe?" Chris called as he used his staff to probe at the ice again. He pitched forward as a snowball baffed him on the back of the head.  
  
"If it's not, we can all die together," Erutis informed him as she dragged him towards the opposite shore where Raenef and Aysel waited.  
  
He groaned in response. "Wonderful..."  
  
Erutis suddenly yelped and ducked. This action, provoked by Raenef's unexpected shout of "Snowball fight!" and the first volley, caused her to slip and send Chris skittering across the ice.  
  
She impacted with a "thud!". "OWW! I swear, it's always the butt! WHY!?!"  
  
"Because it's too heaavyyy!" the sliding cleric called back as he flailed his way across the ice. The second volley make two bulleyes on his person, then he too slipped.  
  
"NOT FAIR! WE WEREN'T PREPARED!"  
  
Aysel was laughing as she helped Raenef drag him to the other side of the lake and bury his head in the snow. "First prisoner of war! You're next, red[2]," she yelled to the sword master stumbling towards them.  
  
"Oh yeah, well... take this! Go, little fire sprite thingiemabobber!" she ordered, brandishing a finger. "Attack[3]!"  
  
A heat wave rushed across the icy surface and melted most of the snow around Chris, resulting in him becoming soaked.  
  
"NOOO!! THIS IS DRY-CLEAN ONLY[4]!"  
  
All actions ceased as the three still on the ice turned to stare at the P.O.W. He shrugged. "What? It says so on the tag. Wanna se-"  
  
"NO!" The emphatic reply was shouted by all of the others, who had realized before the sentence was completely out of his mouth that if they saw the tag on his clothes, it might have to mean that a) he would no longer be in them and b) they would no longer be on him and c) the results could be disastrous if there was no change of clothes at the castle.  
  
While they made their protest, Chris whipped the object behind his back at Erutis as payback for the first snowball. It splatted onto her white tunic and she screeched.  
  
"CHRIS!! MUDBALLS ARE SO AGAINST THE RULES!!" She began racing towards him.  
  
"Uh-oh..." Raenef mumbled, then slid out of the way. In order to prevent his feet from becoming frost-bitten, his sprite wafted down to them and warmed them. It didn't notice or care that the ice was melting rapidly now.  
  
The others did the same, though neither Chris nor Erutis noticed as the former was too busy trying to escape the latter's rubbing his face in the mud.  
  
There was a crack, which was lost in the pair's battle cries. The Demon Lord began attempting to placate the pair. Another, sharper crack sounded, and he glanced down, green eyes wide.  
  
The ice began to give way under his weight. Aysel suddenly darted forward, grabbed his arm and shouted "GO!", sending him to safer ground. The brief moment of both their weight on the weakened ice completely shattered it, and the water surged upwards. The fire sprite was torn apart by the water sprites, so different from the last encounter. Miniscule teeth were bared, and they dragged the elf under and sped underneath the protective surface of the ice and through the dark water.  
  
Raenef started forwards, intent on a possible rescue attempt, then froze as the water turned once again to ice, thicker than it had been before.  
  
-----  
  
'Damascus[5],' Aysel commanded silently, then plunged the small blade that appeared in her hand into the surface of the ice above her. It skidded away and fell from her hand, the light of its length disappearing in the murky water. She tried to reach for the rapidly fading glow, but cursed as she realized that she couldn't see. The Damascus had taken the last of her mezraez.  
  
-----  
  
Staring at the bluish surface of the new ice, Raenef began to call for Eclipse. He stopped as the words that Aysel had spat at Eclipse came to his mind again. "... WEAKER than he would be... found his own path in life... dependant..."  
  
His eyes narrowed. He'd do this on his own. Erutis and Chris were hammering at the ice as his mouth snapped shut and he stepped resolutely forward.  
  
"Hey, yell for Eclipse or something! We can't do this on our own!"  
  
"Get out of my way."  
  
They stopped, then turned to stare at Raenef. He gazed back down at them, chin tilted haughtily, emerald eyes as cool and impenetrable as the frozen lake before them.  
  
"I said, we can't do this on ou-"Erutis started.  
  
"Get out of my way," Raenef commanded again. They gaped at him a few seconds more, then slowly moved aside.  
  
One hand stretched out. Darkness swarmed from his palm and grew into an orb, crackling slightly with miniature bolts of lightning.  
  
"Dark Arrow."  
  
The sphere flew from his hand and sheared through the surface of the ice. He stepped forwards, then cried out in shock as a swell of freezing cold water blasted up through the hole and slammed him into the trunk of a nearby pine. Blood began to trickle from a graze in the Demon Lord's side, and the side of a branch was painted with it.  
  
He dropped as the water retreated, again closing the hole with ice.  
  
-----  
  
A blow to the ice was always stopped by one in the mass of sprites. She was holding her breath for as long as she could, but they were trying to swarm inside her lungs and drown her, make her stay there for eternity. She hadn't thought something like this would happen.  
  
-----  
  
Eclipse abruptly shoved the chair he was sitting in back as the sprite returned and showed him the events that had just occurred.  
  
"GO!"  
  
-----  
  
"Dark Arrow! Dark Arrow! Dark Arrow, damn you!" Raenef was screaming the words now and the ice kept shattering and reforming, shattering and reforming.  
  
"Quit it, Rae!" Erutis was hanging onto one of his arms, trying to restrain him.  
  
Chris was gripping the other, heels dug into the soft earth. "Call Eclipse! Don't try to do this on your own, babo!"  
  
"Not necessary. Master Raenef, stop. You'll waste your mezraez."  
  
Raenef halted, then turned his head aside. "I wanted to do it on my own... find my own way..."  
  
"Hold still." The light in Chris's hand glowed briefly, then settled into the wound on Raenef's side. New flesh grew over and there was no trace left of the injury.  
  
Erutis released Raenef's arm, then watched Eclipse go off across the lake. "We can't do anything, now can we?" she said quietly.  
  
-----  
  
Aysel winced at the damage inflicted by the little sprites claws and teeth. She twisted her head aside as one tried to enter her lungs through her mouth. The movement was not as quick as she would have liked it to be. The cold was wearing her down. She'd give in soon.  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
[1]- I suppose you could call it some form of a law of anime. Stupid things happen, and there IS NO EXPLANATION! Thus, the explanation is that there is none. ;;  
  
[2]- This is a little joke that me'n a friend have concerning Tenkuu no Escaflowne (Visions of Escaflowne or Heavenly Escaflowne. I really have no clue). Anyway, when Van's all berserk and destroying Zaibach guymelefs, he turns towards Dilandau after the rest have been smashed and disintegrated. My friend is usually like, "YOU'RE NEXT, RED!" as a little joke, since Dilandau's guymelef is red. Just felt like popping that in there.  
  
[3]- POKEMOOON! I mean, that format of saying, "go, attack!" just reminds me SO MUCH of Pokemon, or as my principle insists on saying, "Poke-e-man". Hehe...  
  
[4]- Randomness... don't ask... even I don't know...  
  
[5]- Taken from Battle Angel Alita/Gunm, since when Alita plays Motorball and most of the time after that, she has a weapon called the Damascus blade. It's actually much larger than a dagger, and she uses different forms of it. I just decided to throw that in as a spell name, and it's approppiate, no? Okay, and the reason why Aysel did not use the spell format for the elements (i.e. Tyrfli'ng, diamond 9) is because she was using pure mezraez and shaping it into what she wanted it to be. Explanations below.  
  
YamiHikari's Note- oooh, I guess it could be considered a cliffhanger... anyway, MCAS IS OVER! MCAS IS OVER! YESSSS!! Now I seriously need sleep, as I stupidly stayed up late on ALL the MCAS days... and went in a sleep- deprived child... still, I think I did okay... I hope... waaaah.... Oh, and below is a more detailed explanation of the magic in the Demon Diary.   
  
Alright! Here's my own explanation of the magic in the world of Demon Diary, a.k.a Mahwan Ilgi. Of course, most of it is in the back of the fourth volume, but I'm going much more in-depth and spent entirely time on it.... --;; another disclaimer! I do not own this. There. Now that that's over with...  
  
There are 6 main types of magic: Spirit/Sprite, Restorative, Divine, Elemental, Rune, and Pure. Pure can then be divided into two other categories: Dark and Light. (Hey, it matches my penname!)  
  
Spirits or sprites are summoned by the use of Rune magic, but the commanding of the spirits themselves are what is really classified as Spirit magic. There are many types of spirits, and they can exist either on their own plane or in the plane in which our beloved characters move about and basically interact with each other, as shown in the freaky lake. As said in the fourth volume, the contract drawn up by the summoner can only be dissolved if the summoner calls it off, the sprite dies, the summoner dies, or the contract is fulfilled.  
  
Restorative magic is used by all three races: Demon, Human, and Elf. However demons can only use Restorative magic on themselves. The more minor types of Restorative magic require nothing but some form of energy, mezraez or otherwise, from the user, but the more powerful type (which can bring back those on the brink of death) is termed "Sacrifice magic" because it steals some of the lifespan of the user.  
  
Divine magic uses the power of the gods to strike down mostly demons. There are a few Divine magic spells that can affect other life-forms, but not that many. As said in the 4th volume, few clerics can use both Divine and Restorative. I'm assuming that since elves are like the demons' counterparts that they can pretty much use both.  
  
Elemental magic is the use of already existing elements to form some sort of attack, defense, or what-have-you (i.e. Lighter Copy). There are different levels, from 1-9, and the spells require either an exceedingly good memory or creativity that knows no bounds, and is thus a type of magic that requires concentration, discipline(used in the actual CONTROL of the elements) and strength, as elements may have a mind of their own and act contrary to the user's wishes. The reason that Aysel did not use "Pure" magic (look below) to create Tyrfli'ng is because she used the mezraez to first create a light, then used that element that was already present to form the sword. For a hopefully better explanation, then contact me either on AIM as TheDragonsGirl90 or by e-mail on TheDragonsGirl90aol.com.  
The different spells formats are as follows:  
Attack- Crescent  
Defend-Circle  
What-Have-You- Diamond  
After the shape, the level of the spell is also required.  
  
Rune magic is tied in with nearly all of the other magicks, since you can use runes for pretty much anything: from summoning to attacking to healing to teleporting to.... (and the list goes on and on). Of course, the more complicated the rune, the more powerful the spell. Runes can be drawn on the ground, in the air(by just tracing with a finger or using magic to make the outline), or on paper with ink (Lighter Copy). It's also a handy way to have spells at the ready, but you have to have the mezraez required to use it.  
  
Pure magic is the usage of either demonic or elven power. Obviously demons and elves can use this, no problem (DUUUUH!). The use of demonic power is classified as "Dark" whereas elven power is "Light" (another no-brainer). It is simply the use of the mezraez to form what you want from the mezraez, i.e. the Dark Arrow and the Damascus. The crazy rules about needing an incantation on someone else's realm only applies to the highest-ranking individuals: Demon Lords and High Elves (Menefer. Look back at the prologue.) Their underlings can simply shout/yell/call/intone/shrill/sing/recite/mumble/think/whisper/murmur/scream /howl/mutter/groan/growl/hiss/moan/say/mouth/etc.etc. the spell name wherever and whenever unless they do not have enough mezraez. Then they're in trouble if they really need that spell to stay alive. Yeah. Really BIG trouble...  
  
Phew... Finally finished that. If there're any loopholes in this, then please tell me. I'll do my best to patch it up and make it better, okie? Okie. Ja! 


	7. Assassin's Silver, chapter 6

Assassin's Silver:  
chapter six  
by YamiHikari  
  
Disclaimer- I don't own Demon Diary and unless you LIKE pain, do NOT steal any original characters. Thank you.  
  
YamiHikari's Note- Here we go again. Oh yeah, one night I had this dream about going to a bookstore and seeing more Demon Diary related stuff and reading it and all I can remember about one was that Eclipse was being the stereotypical rebel bad-boy in anime. I think he flung a potato from a fork and hit someone on the head with it... and he was wearing a bandana... o.O;; it was funny... and I based one character off of that, but I don't like the character... no I don't. He's mean. Keeps on trying to kill poor Konar- kun. Ah right. After this story is completely wrapped up, I will post something else on fictionpress.com, which will feature Aysel and Haeon. Yeah. If you're interested and I finish soon, look for the author GinSaku on fictionpress.com, 'kay?  
  
- - - - - - - - - - -  
  
'Damn!'  
  
Her air was out. She could hold her breath for just a few seconds more, but that was it. Closing her blind silver eyes, Aysel waited, completely submerged underneath the frigid water. 'Haeon.'  
  
She breathed.  
  
-----  
  
'There.'  
  
He'd found where the elf was, but she was still rapidly moving. Viewing the location in his mind, Eclipse said one word and vanished.  
  
-----  
  
Sharp, white-hot pain lanced through her body. They were beginning to tear her apart; she hadn't known water could do such a thing before now. Now it was wasted knowledge. 'Whatever bastard said that drowning is an easy death should be shot...'

Now the words were slipping from her rapidly and a cohesive thought was getting harder and harder to form as the seconds fell; sand from the hourglass.  
  
------  
  
Energy collected at the palm of one hand.  
  
"Dark Strike!"  
  
The black-clad arm snapped out, fingers splayed as the mezraez sheared through the air and through the crystalline and deadly ice. Shards scattered, some skittering madly across the ice. The water was already collecting and preparing to harden again. Dark eyes narrowed, and Eclipse spoke the words "Ice Blade."  
  
The water did harden, but clear through to the bottom and in the way that he had commanded it to. At the bottom of the well-like structure was the crumpled figure of Aysel, torn and bleeding but maybe still alive. Maybe.  
  
Dropping to the lake floor, retrieving the elf, then hastily teleporting out, Eclipse placed his left hand on the back of her sodden garment. It gleamed slightly and he waited.  
  
A few seconds passed before the body reacted, doubling over and retching. Red droplets trailed down her pale face as she coughed violently, spewing water and the sprites evicted forcibly from her lungs. Blood colored the water that was now soaking into the white snow, and she took a breath of the chill winter air, then was wracked by another fit of coughing.  
  
Pulling her shuddering form closer, he flickered out again and back to where the others waited.  
  
-----  
  
As the demon materialized, the others only turned. No yelps of surprise, no gasps, no twitch of the shoulders in expectation of an unwelcome visitor; they just turned. From the faded looks on their faces, with only a spark of fear keeping the eyes from looking dull and lifeless, it was clear that they had been expecting the worst.  
  
Kneeling to set his burden down in the patch that was clear of snow, Eclipse fixed his own gaze on Chris. "Cleric. Get over here[1]."  
  
"Cleric" began to open his mouth to protest, to state that he had a name, but he stopped suddenly and obeyed. He stepped quickly through the mud, footprints showing clearly. The spirit that had been assigned to him fluttered ahead, hovering just above its summoner.  
  
Aysel managed to turn her head in his general direction, but her eyes were distant, unfocused. Chris, now disregarding the label that read "Dry- clean only", whatever the hell that meant, on the inside of his shirt, sat down in the mud, then reached out a hand hesitantly. His other rested on her shoulder as he said softly, "Try not to move."  
  
Slender frame trembling with the effort of not coughing, she tipped her head downwards slightly as assent. Supported on both sides by Eclipse and Chris, she closed her eyes and let herself relax.  
  
Light shone around the outline of Chris's hand as, for the second time in as many minutes or less, he was called upon to do a healing. This one, however, was more serious, more life-threatening, more important than just a simple graze. The sensitive tissue in the airway had to be repaired as did slices in the lungs themselves.  
  
Expression serious, all antics and theatrics forgotten, the cleric renewed the torn flesh; healed the cuts, the gouges, the vivid crimson marks in the fair skin. At each pause the two could feel the tremors growing fainter, weaker. Finally, they seemed to stop altogether.  
  
Chris started to take his hand away, but he paused halfway. As an experiment, he moved the hand slowly back and forth before her face as her eyes had opened again.  
  
They didn't move. Stunned, he gaped. It had been suspected, but how could she moved about as easily as she had, had she been blind, as this simple test seemed to have proved?  
  
The patient stirred slightly. "It's entirely too cold to be out here after having had a dip in that blasted lake," Aysel stated in a carefully bland tone that nevertheless somehow managed to be scathing, voice quieter than it had been. Still, she had spoken.  
  
Erutis and Raenef started forward; to apologize, to express their relief, to help her up, they didn't know. But they were stopped by Eclipse rising, lifting Aysel.  
  
"Raenef, bring them back to the castle. We'll meet you there."  
  
He departed after that, leaving the three to blink at the air now rushing to fill in the space recently vacated. Chris pushed himself out of the mud, which released its hold on him with a squelch, and walked over to Rae and Erutis. Already linking hands with Raenef, Erutis reached out to touch Chris's shoulder.  
  
They followed.  
  
-----  
  
Breathing hurt.  
  
Yes, the tears had been healed and yes, at least she could breathe, but the areas were still new and became sore after just a few inhalations. The same went for the new skin.  
  
"Trim your blasted nails sometime," she grumbled, trying to dredge up the energy to shift position. "Better yet, get your hands off me, demon."  
  
A faint, almost imperceptible flush of anger appeared on Eclipse's pale face. What had come over him to make him salvage this one life from the lake? Whatever the feeling had been, it sure as hell wasn't present any longer. Sliding his left arm out from the backs of her knees, he let Aysel's feet drop onto the floor and stepped away.  
  
"If you don't like it, you can walk on your own, elf," he said tersely.  
  
The instant that Eclipse had stepped back, she'd fallen. Slender body curled slightly, wet strands of silver hair clinging to her face, she placed one palm flat on the floor. Aysel's other hand did the same, and she tried to push herself back up. Her arms shook violently with the effort and she rose a few inches before they gave out and she dropped back onto the cold marble.  
  
She opened her eyes. "Point made. You'd better be happy, bastard." They closed again.  
  
"Too unimaginative to think of another way of transportation?"  
  
"I'd die before I crawl, fu-"  
  
"Eclipse!"  
  
The incomplete word stayed incomplete as Raenef dashed in, sliding to a halt at Aysel's side and kneeling to try and lift her from the cold floor. He had managed to lift her upright when Chris and Erutis had burst into the room through the wide open door, panting. As they helped Raenef to bear her weight, he gazed at Eclipse, green eyes wide with reproach.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Master Raenef, I-"  
  
"I slipped." The two words, almost inaudible, were all that the elf said before subsiding once again into silence.  
  
Though the brief explanation did not seem at all plausible, the young Demon Lord hesitated only a moment before accepting it; what else could he do? His gaze flickered from the pallid face next to his, then to Eclipse.  
  
"We got this. You can go now."  
  
With a slight incline of his head, the demon signified that he had understood, then left.  
  
"There's a bed the next room over," Erutis said, tilting back to meet Rae's eyes as he turned back.  
  
He nodded. "Right." Then he ducked to avoid the light that bobbed by his head.  
  
"No! Hey, quit it, I said! Get away!" Chris was attempting to wave his own off with one hand. "Away, I said!"  
  
Aysel's lips twitched in what might have, could have, been a smile. "Contract dissolved. Rae, same for yours."  
  
After he'd obediently repeated the first two words and all the sprites had vanished, the three half-dragged, half-carried her into the other room and deposited her in the bed. Only when they saw the slightly darker patches appear where she was did they realize what should have been obvious: the elf was still sopping wet.  
  
"Damn. She could catch pneumonia like that..."  
  
Erutis glanced over at the dark-haired cleric questioningly. "Eh, shouldn't you know how to treat that kind of thing?"  
  
He coughed lightly into his hand and mumbled something incomprehensible, glancing over, embarrassed, out the window.  
  
"Say what?"  
  
More mutters.  
  
"Come on, spit it out."  
  
"I... ah..."  
  
Raenef snapped his fingers. "I get it! He spent all his time memorizing stuff to kill demons instead of healing the really serious stuff! I mean, if you just learn how to heal flesh wounds, then it's pretty much the same all the way, but he didn't learn stuff for colds, right?"  
  
Face now bright red, Chris became unduly fascinated with his still- muddy boots. "Didja really have to put it so bluntly?"  
  
Erutis sighed. "Then what can we do, huh? We're supposed to get the wet stuff off, right?"  
  
"Ah..."  
  
"Urm..."  
  
It was at this point that the sword master noticed the two others backing away, both trying to be inconspicuous and both now a lovely, bright tomato –tomahto- red. She blinked for a moment, then realization dawned on her.  
  
"Good grief..."  
  
- - - - - - - - - -  
  
YamiHikari's Note- mmph. I checked on my computer, and this is the shortest chapter, excluding the preview which doesn't really count. Anyway, May 30th was my birthday! Happy birthday to me! I live in chopped up trees! I mighta been descended from a monkeeeey! But happy birthday to me! ;; ... I need to get to Barnes and Noble SOON to get the LAST VOLUME OF DEMON DIARY! GAAAH! And in case anyone is wondering, I do not write shounen-ai/yaoi or shoujo- ai/yuri. Nope. I just don't. So in relation to some previous reviews, well... brandishes a paper ARTISTIC LISCENSE!! hiding behind the paper But it's amusing, since the two series that I have fics posted on right now are kinda famous for their yaoi ficcies, and here I am with straight pairings. Eheheh... but GW does have its fair share of straight stuff. I mean, look at Aishiteru.com. I had FYH posted there with the first two, unrewritten chappies, but abandoned it. I felt sorry for the webmistress who had to do all the work, so I stopped. ... I should go to sleep now... I got this major thing that I need to do to pass on to the next grade day after tomorrow and I gotta mentally prepare myself. Yeah. I can do this.... I can do this... I can do this.... deep breath Anyway, ja!


	8. Assassin's Silver, chapter 7

1Assassin's Silver:

chapter seven

by YamiHikari

Disclaimer- I don't own Demon Diary! (Actually, I DO have the whole series on my bookshelf now, but, you know what I mean!) Oh yes, and no stealing of original characters please.

YamiHikari's Note- My comp. got messed up and my bro deleted EVERYTHING to fix it. EVERYTHING. GAAH! So now I hafta write this with WordPerfect instead of Microsoft Word, and M. Word is what I've used until now and I miss it terribly. Boohoo. Oh, and I HAVE FINALLY gotten a hold of the TWO BOOKS that I was missing in Demon Diary, and now have the entire series! Yay! And now that I look back on it, stuff that I wrote(like, with the magic and stuff) is completely contradictory to what is in the last volume. Hey, let's just pretend that the stuff after the middle of volume 4 never happened, and Assassin's Silver will make perfect sense.... ehehehe.... anyway, THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS! YOU'RE(the reviewers) ALL SO NICE!!

Despite their best efforts, a fever had set in and after the first few days began to climb and drop and climb again as the hours went by. In one of the early hours of the morning, when even the sun thought it was an abominable hour to be out and about, Aysel was caught up in a fit of delirium, long, silvery hair braided back from her face by Erutis,

Eyes slitted open fixated blearily on the blank wall just inches from her face.

Now someone was standing before her; she was at the back of a room filled with children and a teacher was at the head of the class. No one noticed the elven woman lying at the back.

"Very good. Now can you tell me what this is?" the teacher inquired, perhaps too brightly, switching flashcards and holding up one that held a mangled body.

The eyes narrowed as pale shoulders covered by a light azure fabric shuddered. She knew. Aysel knew the answer all too well. Dazed, she struggled with the fact that she knew it was a dream and with the instinct to tell the ignorant the answer; the instinct to please the authority figure to perhaps gain a word of praise.

There were some questioning murmurs arising from the seemingly unaffected class.

Lips moving, she tried to speak. "Shell," she managed, but barely recognized her own voice. It was rough, twisted, mangled like the body of her elder brother that lay in the mud of the riverbank where it had been unceremoniously tossed after the demons had finished with it.

"Shell," she repeated hoarsely, then had no energy to speak again. [1] She couldn't shout out what she knew the answer was, and no heads turned to look. Instead, the class continued, entirely oblivious to the figure at the back.

'Just a broken, empty, defeated shell! There's no soul left! It's gone! It's dead!' was what Aysel had wanted to rage, to scream, to sob at the ignorant peoples in front of her.

But the dream slipped from her grasp like water through a sieve, and she finally sank into the darkness of sleep.

Sunlight was beginning to stream in through the windows and Chris's back ached from the hours in the chair.

"Idiot. You fell asleep on watch," was the sword master's attempt at humor to lighten the situation, but somehow her tone was too bleak, too weary, too strained, and almost truly accusing rather than jokingly so.

"Very funny. I laugh and laugh and laugh." He rose from the seat, one hand rubbing his eyes as the other held onto the back of the chair for support. "And I will if you fall asleep too. What's for breakfast?"

"Go back to sleep. No one's getting up THIS early just to make breakfast for you." This try was a bit more successful.

The only answer Erutis received from that comment was a sneer from Chris before he stumbled out of the room. Turning back to the bedridden figure, she reached out and lifted the folded cloth from the elf's forehead; Erutis dipped it in the bowl of cold water before wringing it out and placing it back.

She settled back and in for the hours before Raenef would take his turn.

Cursed pride of the species!

As the sun began to peer in on him, Eclipse peered- glared really- back. Though nearly a week had passed, it was the seventh day, he still hadn't found answers to anything. He was irritated by this, and became even more irritated when he also couldn't figure out why the hell he was irritated. This vicious circle ended, and began, with an irritated Eclipse.

In a formerly unusual display of temper, the demon shoved the chair that he was sitting in back, resulting in an earsplitting squeal of protest from the mistreated piece of furniture and the floor. Rising, he set off down the hall. Not that it'd help any, but still. A short brush of an unfamiliar aura against his consciousness made him pause and turn back to the window where he was nearly blinded again by the sunlight.

The immediate disappearance of the feeling and his annoyance at the sun and other nameless things made Eclipse turn back and resume his walk down the halls as if nothing had happened. When the sound of the demon's steps had faded away - each one a peeved slap of a leather sandal against smooth stone - the presence slipped into his study and ghosted down the hall in the opposite direction, silently cursing its former carelessness.

"Hey, what're you being so bitchy about this early in the morning, huh?"

"'Bitchy'?!" The demon's tone held mixed tones of incredulity and a growing rage at the world in general in the one repetition.

Unperturbed by what would have formerly sent her scurrying for cover, Erutis simply arched her eyebrows while leaning back in her own chair. "Yeah, bitchy. As in ill-tempered like some pissed-off female dog. Really, what's your problem, comin' in here and starting to just vent whatever problems you have on me, eh? Eh?"

There was a brief, tense silence, then what could have become the castle half in ruins was interrupted by a light, dry laugh. It quickly became a fit of coughing which shook the white, damp cloth off the elf's forehead, but eventually turned into a mixture of both.

The two in the room simply stared at Aysel, who was now acting as if it was the most amusing thing she had ever heard before. Flopping back down from her half-risen position that she had assumed during her bout of hysterics, she grinned vaguely up at them.

"Like a dog on a leash. Master calls, the leash goes yank, and the bitch follows." Slowly, gracelessly, her pallid hand reached up and curled around Eclipse's raven-dark hair. "Yank, yank. Go answer your master, bitch."

Pulling the black strands back in time with the first two words took most of what energy she could summon to move any distance further than a couple inches. Letting her hand drop, Aysel laughed again, that eerily rough, almost wild laugh.

"Isn't fever at a low ebb in the morning?" asked Erutis, warily replacing the cloth as if she thought the invalid would suddenly rise and tear a chunk from her arm with her teeth.

"Yes." Eclipse was returning Aysel's hand to her side. For a second, his fingers tightened about her slender wrist, topmost digits curled inwards while the nails nearly dug into the vulnerable flesh. The moment passed and he completed the act. She was now gazing up at him soberly, solemnly; he idly wondered if she had gotten her sight back.

For the second time in as many minutes, the door to the room swung inwards and open. Raenef moved to the side and held the door as Chris entered, attempting to balance a steaming bowl of some semi-liquid substance on two hands whose instinctive reaction was to jerk away from the painfully hot object as quickly as possible. With a sigh of relief, the cleric set the bowl down on top of a handy bureau and blew on his palms.

A loud crash of door-becoming-reacquainted-with-doorframe made the two humans jump and shoot simultaneous glares towards the now apologetic, puppy-dog eyed Raenef.

"What is this? A demon lord residing with humans?" The words hung on the air as another being materialized in the room. Bright topaz eyes rested on the scene before them as the spymaster made himself comfortable on a windowsill.

"Well, sire? Answer me," the darker-colored elf stated in a tone that could have been classified as condescending, jeweled gaze directed towards a startled Raenef.

There were some astounded splutters from Chris and Erutis.

"He broke the record!"

Ignoring them, the new arrival made his way across the room and past Erutis to where Aysel lay, now fixing her own fey gaze upon him, eyes narrowed in a glare.

"Our lord has made his decision; you are to return immediately. Menefer is not especially pleased with you, Aysel."

Former actions now pushed aside, the patient was now surprisingly lucid. "Tell him to shut up for me, Sef, there's a good messenger boy. Y'know, maybe it'll be the first time he doesn't shoot the bearer of insulting news."

Hoarse though her voice still was, her phrase was cutting. There was no reaction on Sef's lightly tanned features.

"How..."

Raenef's unanswered question remained unanswered as, in a blur of movement, Sef was instantly behind him with one arm pressed around the demon lord's throat and another's hand holding a knife close enough to make the others hesitate before attempting anything. Sometime during his passage, Eclipse had been suitably distracted by the bowl of near boiling substance resting on the bureau flipping up into his face and the door suddenly coming to play "Getting to Know You" with the back of his head.

"Perhaps I should just eliminate him for you right now." The spymaster's voice matched his bland expression.

Slowly, now with the easy grace of a serpent coiling and readying itself to strike, Aysel slid out from between the sheets and stood, pale blue tunic coming to a rest just above her knees. She took a leisurely step towards Sef and his hostage, then continued in that manner until she was just in front of them both. Vibrant green eyes pleaded with her, wide with terror as the blade stopped just short of drawing blood.

Leaning slightly forward, hand resting on the now empty bureau top for balance, Aysel smiled. "Do you know the reason _why_ you're a spymaster rather than an assassin or a real spy, Sef? Do you? It's simply this." One hand snapped out.

Sef brought the knife around in a gesture that would have killed Raenef had he still been standing there. Instead, it plunged into Aysel's arm as she shoved the demon lord down.

Lips now just by the darker elf's ear, she whispered, heedless of the blood now running down her arm, "You don't have the guts to kill. Now, get OUT!"

Jerking away, Sef barely managed to get a shield up in time as a blast of light sheared through the air towards him. As it was, a shaft of it pierced the shield and sliced past his left cheek and pointed ear. For the first time he showed some emotion and winced, bringing a hand up automatically to try and stop the flow. The left ear was torn; there was little to no chance of a complete recovery from that. Looking Aysel full in the face, he spoke.

"I do not believe that you or anyone else residing here will be safe for much longer."

The last ounce of mezraez that she had went into the scrutiny of his expression. Sef's eyes were now the ones pleading, but for understanding and not for salvation. Aysel was still for a moment, and then slowly, deliberately, she nodded.

"Whatever happens, keep him safe."

The spymaster, after acknowledgment of the enigmatic message, vanished. Aysel dropped, nearly landing on Eclipse and just barely avoiding the substance splattered on the floor. Scrambling to his feet, Raenef bent to inspect her injury.

She yanked her arm away, bringing a protest from Chris as he attempted to heal the injury. "Don't poke at it."

"Quit moving! ...you sound fine now..."

"Mm? Oh. Surprisingly enough, I feel fine." The elf thought back to the path that Sef had taken to threaten Raenef. There had been the faintest suggestion of the brush of one hand against her forehead, and she was more than willing to bet that that had been another reason for the path that he chose.

But the fact remained that he could not give her any of his own mezraez and that she was unhappily low on magical energy right about then; in fact, Aysel had none. Also, simple healing of the ill itself did not mean that she could be up and about as she usually was, which then lead to another unpleasant fact which was that she still had recuperation to do. After Chris's hand had left her arm, a sure sign that the cleric was finished and had probably already risen from his crouch, she got somewhat unsteadily - though surprisingly the opposite, given the fact that just a few minutes prior to this, she had been bedridden - to her own feet, and began to try and navigate her way to the door and out the hallway to someplace more open and with a bit more sunlight.

Noting his patient's hesitant steps and all the near crashes with someone or something else in the room, Chris jerked his head in her direction. "Oy. One or both of you do something before she knocks something over." There was a slight protest which abruptly changed into some curse in the smooth, lilting tongue of the elves; judging from the tone, it was something very severe and very appropriate when one's shin is smacked into the deathtrap that all pieces of furniture with sharp edges are.

"I'll check out Eclipse."

There was a slight murmur from Erutis as she crossed the required distance to get from point A to point B that was inaudible to persons standing at point B, but Chris's reply cut through clearly from point C -somewhere between points A and B- to the persons at said point B. "For burns, you idiot! Burns! Get your blasted mind out of the gutter!"

If the nature of the knowledge that Sef had passed on to her had not been so sobering, Aysel might have laughed as she exited the room with her entourage of two made up of a Demon Lord and a Sword Master.

Keeping his tone carefully bland yet respectful, the spymaster ignored the dribbles of blood leaking onto the shoulder of his tunic and made his report to Menefer.

"I believe that it would not be wise to send in other agents; Aysel seems to already have their complete trust. To preserve it when I attempted to meet with her and some of the residents arrived, she made as if to drive me away. I believe she succeeded in keeping them all fooled."

"How long?" The High Elf eyed his servant seemingly idly with gleaming eyes reminiscent of the darker colored opals that were prized for their rarity.

Sef understood the unsaid words that would clarify the meaning of the sentence. "As long as she is there, it is too risky to send in others unless she is to be eliminated."

After his words, there was silence; he tried his best to not make any suspicious movements nor give Menefer any reason to believe he was lying. It was a dangerous game that Sef was playing, and with one of the few people dear to him at stake. Resisting the urge to do some action to relax himself, the spymaster kept his eyes down and mentally admired the inlay work on the floor as he had done before in situations like this, keeping his facial expression blank.

The slight 'plip' of a crimson droplet upon the floor shattered the silence. Lord Menefer glanced down, chin resting on one unadorned hand.

"We will leave her alone until there is reason to do otherwise. When that time comes, you shall be summoned. Dismissed. Send someone in here to clean that."

With a faint incline of his head, Sef stood and exited the room. As he strode off down the hall, he easily healed the injuries inflicted upon him by Aysel, pausing just before the marks completely disappeared on an afterthought, almost as a memory of her. His right hand reached into a pocket and stroked the silver rim of a pendant, stopped at the rough edge which signaled that at one point or another it had been larger. It seemed his warning had been false.

'Don't do anything rash until I can speak to you again.'

He prayed his message would somehow, someway reach the assassin in the castle of the Fifth Demon Lord Raenef.

Said assassin's mind was racing even as she settled onto a sunny ledge in the garden, three others - Chris had managed to catch up with them after dealing with Eclipse's injuries; it had seemed more like his pride was injured rather than he himself - arrayed in other parts of the garden. Erutis had returned to the hammock she had set up at some time during her stay, Chris was under the shade offered by the spreading boughs of a tree, and Raenef had found his own sun-warmed perch nearby.

'A month at most, a day at least. Sweet Mab, that's not even close to what I would need for decent protection of this place. A month would be fine, but... Sef, if you don't manage to do anything, and I know you can, I will hunt you down and destroy you.

Let's say: three days at most for the runes, strength another day, final placement-'

"Hey."

Thoughts and plans interrupted, Aysel glanced up but kept a tight hold on her train of thought. There was no telling who or what it might run down if it got loose.

"He knew you. He nearly killed Rae. What the hell are you doing, running around with people like that, eh?" Erutis's tone was cold, her eyes frigid, the temperature somewhere in the negatives.

"I believe that is something we would all like to know."

Aysel's expression abruptly went from wary to the former mixed with exasperation; it seemed to say, "not you too", as Eclipse had - in addition to somehow miraculously getting clean - just entered the garden and the beginnings of the conversation. Shifting position so that her legs were also resting atop the stone ledge that ran along the edges of the garden, she also turned her face to gaze at the afternoon sun, just beginning its climb into the fully overhead position that it always assumed at noon.

She turned back, expression as bland as the one Sef had used when addressing Menefer. "There's not much to te-"

"Yes there is!" Chris snapped, rising from his relaxed position against the tree trunk, blue eyes now blazing. He was as fiery as Erutis had been glacial. "And take the mask off, you always have that expression on whenever you don't want to do something or if you're encountering something that you'd rather be far away from!"

Surprise showed clearly on her fair features as her gaze flicked towards him, so surely and accurately that he and the others present were sure that she had regained her sight.

"And another thing: what's the deal with you being able to see sometimes and then being completely blind others, huh?! And why won't you tell us anything?! How many times have you dodged out of answering questions about yourself anyway?! [2]"

The expression that Aysel wore was now stubborn, and for a while it was merely a silence that was stretched so taught with possibilities that one wondered how the five managed to breathe.

Then she dropped her gaze and turned away again, only partway this time so that rather than not meeting their eyes at all, she was simply profiled against the sky which matched the tunic perfectly; now she seemed only disembodied parts emerging from the sky. She still had not taken the time to loosen her hair, but some errant strands had drifted away to frame her pale face.

"So I can't dodge out this time, huh?" She sounded tired; a smile that had no humor contained in it pulled at her lips.

They did not dignify that with a response, and since Aysel had not been expecting one, she did not really care.

"Right. Here goes, I guess."

The expression on what they could see of her face was a mingling of an unfathomable sorrow and, strangely, the bracing for something else, some repercussion of what she was about to do; there was an inexplicable swell of both impatience and yearning within Eclipse. He dismissed them both as part of the eagerness to finally know that answers that he'd sought for so long, but a shadow of doubt flickered inside him.

It quickly retreated and hid for the time being as Aysel drew a breath and let it out slowly before beginning her story.

[1] - this actually happened to me once, and it was dang CREEPY. It's like, you know it's a dream, but you don't really... I don't know how to explain it at all... mm, yeah, that's pretty much how this part came about, except I added stuff. I mean, all I dreamed about was some teacher - I think it was my Spanish teacher for some strange reason - who was holding out a shell and asking what it was. I felt horrid and I nearly couldn't talk, and I fully expected myself to be ill and unable to attend school in the morning. However, I was fine when I woke up after falling asleep, much to my disappointment. I kinda felt like skippin' school, like I usually do when I'm tired in the morning, which is pretty much always... ... HOW do I get good grades with THAT kinda attitude?!?

[2]- out of curiosity, I checked. At least twice in writing. If there were others, I don't know, sooo... yeah.

YamiHikari's Note- umm... gee... I don't have much to say, amazingly enough. I mean, usually I blather on and on and on about junk, and here I am drawing a blank. Well, let's see... I started fencing (if it hits near 100 degrees, I am gonna DIE in that jacket...)... I... good grief, I'm so boring in the summer... -;; anyway, this story's should be all wrapped up in a couple more chapters, soooo... yeah. Soon I'll be VERY happy and celebrating my first finished non-one-shot fanfiction ever! Woohoo! Anyway, those of you on summer vacation (like me!), have a SUPER LOTTA FUN! YEAH! PARTYPARTYPARTY! Or whatever, your call. Ja!

P.S. – I actually finished this sometime around the end of June, however a certain SUZU-CHAN glares insisted on being the first to read, so I sent this to her, then never really got around to posting, since usually she's nagging at me to post since she hasn't been able to read the whole thing. Sorry for the wait! Oh yeah, right now I'm battling an urge to just drop EVERYTHING on and concentrate on ... I mean, if you really wanted to know the end, I could post an explanatory last chapter, but I might continue, however... GYAAH! I'm confusing myself... help... mee... TT.TT


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